


Out of Air, Out of Time

by Seal9



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Bonding in dire situations, F/M, Feelings, episode 7 rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-12 08:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18007481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seal9/pseuds/Seal9
Summary: Their life support running low and the ship badly damaged, Leonard, Sara, Ray, and Kendra, need to repair the Waverider before oxygen runs out. A life or death situation seems like a great time for Leonard and Sara to start talking about feelings.Rewrite of Season 1 Episode 7. With more science, and more feelings.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I always thought that Episode 7 could have been a bit more 'realistic' or did a bit more with the sci-fi. I thought it odd that all the oxygen being sucked out of the room wasn't the issue and that the cold was, especially since Valor was counting on them running out of air. 
> 
> So I've decided to rewrite episode 7 from the point after Rip and the away team get captured by the pirates on the Acheron. This isn't a dark story like my others. And it explores the beginnings of a relationship between Leonard and Sara.
> 
> As for the vac-suits the characters wear in the story, look up "The Expanse Vac Suit" and it should be the first. If you see a bulky helmet with tubes, that's the one.
> 
> Please enjoy.

Leonard doesn’t like zero-gravity. He never realised just how much he liked having the feeling of his feet on the floor, and the invisible weight of one-g on his shoulders, until Gideon turned off the gravity fields on the Waverider. 

“Watch out!” Raymond exclaims, giving Kendra just enough time to flap her wings and dodge the weightless projectile of Raymond. 

“Please be careful,” Gideon’s omnipresent voice requests as Raymond knocks all the air of his body as he crashes into the side of the bridge. 

The ecstatic scientist recovers quickly and redirects himself into the trajectory of the captain’s seat, sticking a hand out to grab onto it and bring himself to a stop.

Half the team are currently onboard the Acheron, searching for survivors, and the data cores which can be used to determine a location on Vandal Savage. Which left, Leonard, Kendra, Raymond, and Sara, on the Waverider to entertain themselves while they waited. 

They got bored. Very quickly. Having spent the past week trapped on the ship while their captain scrounges around for any hopes in the timestream, the team had already been exhausting methods of keeping themselves entertained, so remaining stuck on the ship left with them little to do. 

Right up until Raymond remembered a show he had been watching during the week. The Expanse. Supposedly, it had just released two months before they were all scooped up by Rip and brought onto this mission, but Gideon was kind enough to allow Raymond to watch the entire first season of the show.

Leonard had been passively hearing about it during the course of the week. He would often be in the galley grabbing something to eat, when Raymond and the Professor would be discussing something to do with centrifugal forces and how many rockets would be needed to put a spin on an asteroid to make it habitable. He’s pretty sure he overheard Sara and Raymond talking about the show at one point. 

After much begging by the eager scientist, Gideon disabled the gravity generators aboard the bridge of the Waverider, putting the four remaining passengers into free-float. 

Raymond got a bit too excited at suddenly finding himself weightless and ended up sending himself into an out of control spiral. Kendra, who was a bit more prepared, had to use her wings to catch him and keep him from crashing into the walls too hard. 

Leonard was quite jarred by the weightless. Like a new-born deer, Leonard was quite ungraceful in the zero-g environment and was holding onto every solid object he could for fear he would just float away. For now, he had moved himself away from the others and floated by the entrance of the captain’s office, using the frame to keep him fixed in place. 

After securing Raymond and putting him back on course, Kendra started experimenting with her wings in the lack of gravity. The wings helped provide some stabilisation, especially since the bridge was still pressured and the air could be used to keep her steady. Kendra still didn’t look entirely comfortable, making the occasional mistake and overcorrecting just a tad which would put her in a spin, but she was getting better every minute. 

Sara, on the other hand, had picked up on it really quickly. Like everyone, the first few moments were unexpected and foreign, as all their bodies and internal organs had to adjust to the lack of gravity. But after that, it took her just a few minutes before she was skimming around the bridge with speed and fluidity. 

Now she was just showing off. 

Leonard was watching Raymond pretend to upside down chin-ups on the captain’s chair, when a mass of blonde hair cuts across him. By the time he begins tracking the assassin’s movement, she’s already glided away from him, flashing an amused smirk back at him. 

Kendra tied her hair up into a bun shortly after the gravity was disabled. Sara did not. Strands of blonde hair trailed behind in her wake, like tendrils emerging from her head. She smiled as she glided under Kendra’s wing, bouncing off the wall behind the Hawk woman and grabbing onto her back, frightening the unsuspecting target. The two whispered something, looking in the direction of Raymond before bursting out laughing. 

Leonard likes to believe that he would have taken to liking the company of the assassin even if things between himself and Mick weren’t so heated. Something about Lance had captured his intrigue since the day they boarded this ship, and there was always a voice in the back of his head telling him that maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if he tried to be a bit more, social, with her at least. 

Whatever that voice in his head was, he owes it a debt of gratitude. Much of Leonard’s time this week had been in the company of the resident assassin, doing a whole lot of not assassin-like activities, such as eating and playing cards. And as mundane as those activities sound, something about their simplicity makes the experience that much better. 

Nothing feels forced or unnatural between them. They sit opposite each other at the table or across the floor, and it does not result in an awkward silence that needs words to fill the void. And then when one of them does have something to say, which is usually infrequent, there is no strain on the other to uphold and extend the communication. Conversations can last as long or short as they want. 

And for the first time in years, Leonard doesn’t feel like he has to lie or put on a cover identity around her. It doesn’t mean he has any intention of spilling his guts about his life story, but he doesn’t have to use one of the many fake background stories that he has for back home.

Lost in his reverie, Leonard doesn’t realise that Sara is floating just a meter in front of him. 

Her arms are crossed over her chest, and she’s examining his face with an inquisitive look. Her hair floats weightlessly behind her head, strands bobbing up and down as they reach the apex of their length. 

“You look grumpy as usual,” Sara’s voice snaps him back to reality.  
“What?” Leonard asks.

He asks because he didn’t hear her in the first place. 

Sara taps her feet on the floor, using the boost of momentum to thrust her towards the other side of the office entrance, hooking her feet against the mirrored side of the metal frame. 

“Did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?” she grins.  
Leonard casts an uncertain look, “You know you can only get out of the beds one way, right?”  
Her teeth are revealed through the grin, “I know.”

Leonard makes an annoyed grunt and pretends to ignore her. 

“Why aren’t you floating around with us?” Sara asks with genuine curiosity, “I thought you would like space.”

Leonard watches Raymond accidentally collide with a chair and ricochet off, “I just like to keep both feet on the ground.”

“Gideon said there are suits with magnetic boots,” Sara informs, strands of her hair floating across her face before orbiting back around her head. 

The way her hair picture her face is just stunning in Leonard’s opinion. He knows Sara Lance is good looking, she knows it too. Seeing her fight, the speed and efficiency at which she moves across the room and takes out hostiles, is impressive and utterly breathtaking. But even in such a relaxed state, floating and weightless in the air as if she was merely swimming through clear water, she continues to amaze him. 

“Honestly,” Sara continues, flicking a large group of hair away from her eyes, “Most of this science stuff goes right over my head; spin stations, thrust-generated gravity. I have no clue how any of that works.”

“Ever been on one of those amusement rides where it spins you in circles and presses you against the wall?” Leonard asks, to which Sara answers with a nod of her head, “Spinning pushes you away from the centre of the object, which is why it feels like you’re being crushed against the wall. Depending on the size of the object, the speed at which it rotates, and how far you are from the spin axis, depends on how strong the Coriolis effect is. What was once walls, can now become ground if the spin is strong enough to hold you.”

Sara takes a few moments to process the explanation in her head, remembering back to the times when she and Laurel would go to amusement parks and hop on those rides where you strap into a ring which starts spinning up. 

She hums and bobs her head, her hair picking up momentum, “You learn something new every day.”  
Leonard grins, “My pleasure.”

“Warning,” Gideon’s voice returns, “I am restoring gravity. There is communication from the Acheron.”

Leonard and Sara use the frame to plant their feet on the floor, and Kendra uses her wings to glide back down and brace for the returning gravity. Raymond, unfortunately, was too lost in his own excitement to hear the warning. 

Leonard feels the weight return, as his organs settle downwards in his body and his heart pumps the blood at its usual rate. 

Then there’s a large thudding sound, and a groan as Raymond is lying supine on the floor by the captain’s chair. 

“Ouch.”

Leonard rolls his eyes and approaches the central console with Lance. Kendra helps Raymond to his feet and guides him over too. 

A small blinking notification of an incoming hail from the Acheron is on the screen. Raymond casts a quick glance at the others before shrugging and tapping the accept button, revealing the image of a man in a dark leather jacket, grey hair on his head and face, rugged and possibly older than Leonard. 

“I’d like to speak to acting captain Raymond Palmer,” the man spoke.  
Raymond bounces on his feet a little, “I could get used to the sound of that. I’m Captain Palmer. Who are you?”

“I’m the man holding your crew hostage,” the pirate responds with a smug grin. 

The four of them all look up at each other with concern and uncertainty.

“Captain Palmer,” Rip’s voice calls out from the background, “I’ve informed Mr Valor of the fiery retribution that will rain down upon him if we are not released immediately.”

Valor momentarily disappears off-screen before the sound of flesh being hit can be heard, and Rip’s head is slammed against the display, “I’m gonna make this, real simple for you. You surrender your ship and I’ll drop you off at a place and time of your choosing. Unharmed,” Valor adds, “You’ve got 10 seconds to decide.”

“Or else what?” Raymond asks with genuine curiosity. 

God, he’s an idiot, Leonard thinks. 

“If you want the Waverider, there’s no way you’ll fire at us and destroy it,” the acting captain continues.  
“Don’t need to destroy your ship when I’ve got my gun pressed against your captain’s skull!” countered Valor, pressing his green laser pistol as described.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Ray pleaded, “Just give me a chance to negotiate.”  
“10 seconds!” Valor snaps back. 

Raymond taps the mute button and looks to the team, “What do we do guys?”  
“Hand over the ship,” Leonard replies instantly. 

The others look at him in shock. 

“What?” Leonard shrugs, “When he comes to take it from us, we ambush his crew and kill him. Simple.”

The time pirate continued counting down, reaching five when Hunter started saying something outlandish about Raymond’s accomplishment of some feat. No one really understood what it meant, but suddenly claxons rang out over the Waverider, and red lights began flashing in the bridge. 

“Gideon?” What’s happening?” Sara asked, watching Valor continue to count down.  
“No time to explain. Strap yourselves in,” Gideon ordered. 

The ship lurched forward before they finished fastening their harness. As a beam fired from the belly of the Waverider, Gideon began explaining that Hunter had programmed special codewords to initiate certain protocols. This one being a light attack on the Acheron. 

“You trying to kill our team, Gideon?” Leonard barks at the ceiling, a furious glare at the realisation that they’re now poking holes into the other ship, where his partner is trapped.  
“Just a warning shot, Mr Snart,” Gideon tries to assure. 

Leonard is not assured. 

The Waverider surges past the Acheron, which now begins activating its own systems and begins following in pursuit. Gideon regretfully informs the team that they are currently being target locked, and a missile has just been fired. 

Seconds later, and an explosion rocks the ship to the side. Gideon reports that a large hole has been punctured through the hull, and telemetry has been disabled. 

Raymond hops out of his chair and sprints over to the Captain’s seat, insisting that he could continue to fly them manually. The three others remain in their seats, fear emanating between them. The sound of another missile firing at them goes off, and moments later, another explosion rocks the ship to the side. This time, Gideon informs that life support has been damaged, and that she is no longer able to generate oxygen for the ship. 

“That sounds really bad,” Kendra calls out as sparks burst from the ceiling and pepper the floor.  
“They want to kill us, but keep the ship intact as much as possible,” Leonard figures. 

“I suggest now would be a good time to familiarise yourself with the vac-suits,” Gideon suggests with the utmost urgency. 

Everyone bar Raymond climbs out of their seats and begins sprinting through the ship towards the fabrication room. Raymond continues to fly the ship, but fortunately, it seemed that the Acheron was no longer firing weapons at them, or at least couldn’t fire any weapons at them. 

To his side, one of the monitors on the wall shows Valor threatening Rip to order them to surrender, but Hunter just grins and begins telling another tale of Raymond outrunning somebody or something. 

Whatever he was saying, Gideon is the only one to understand the secret command, and activates a hologram that layers over the Waverider before engaging the cloak and directing Raymond to change directions. With the ship now cloaked, they can peel away from the hologram without being detected. The Acheron surges past the port side of the ship, chasing after the hologram which is flying off into deep space. 

Comms were disabled once the cloak engaged, a necessity that Gideon said was required to avoid being detected by radar. After getting Ray to alter their course slightly, Gideon informed Ray that he could now disembark from the seat and hastily make his way to the fabrication room while Gideon tries to decelerate, proving to be quite difficult without the telemetry. 

In the vast scale of space, the Waverider was just a small grey dot amongst the black and stars, practically invisible. 

Raymond arrives just as Sara is having her rebreather fastened tightly by Snart, who was already in his vac-suit. Raymond helps finalise Kendra’s suit before getting her to help him into his own. The scientist would have used his super-suit, but he hasn’t made it space-worthy or airtight. 

The suit itself is an insulted grey material, soft to touch, but firm and durable. The rebreathers look like bulky metal backpacks, arms sliding through the big straps and using small clips and buckles to fasten it over the wearer’s torso. Different sized tubes go up and down the suit, with a large black tube going from the back of the helmet to the top of the rebreather. From the rebreather, is a small clear tube which allows oxygen intake from the bottles which are fastened to the side of the rebreather. 

The small panel on their wrists lights up. 

“Your suits are now operational,” Gideon’s voice spoke over the comms, “The panel on your wrist can be used for checking suit vitals and changing communication channels between the other suits. As of now, there are 10 minutes of breathable oxygen that I can continue to circulate throughout some portions of the ship, but after that, you must rely on your suit's own supply and the oxygen bottles.”

Everyone slid their helmets on but kept the face mask detached, deciding it would be best to save their suit’s limited supply and make use of the ship’s first. 

“What is the likelihood the pirates come back and finish us off?” Sara asks.  
“Extremely low. We are off radar, and they have been following the hologram for minutes now,” Gideon answers. 

Raymond does up the final strap of his vac-suit, “We need to fix those holes in the ship before we can begin repairing the modules.”  
“The telemetry control and life support rooms are sealed off by the bulkheads. To open them would require decompression of the surrounding corridor to avoid further ruptures or explosions,” Gideon informed. 

“Then we better make the most of these next nine minutes,” Snart drawls. He points two fingers at Kendra and Raymond, “You two want to sort out life support?”

They nod simultaneously. 

“Good,” Leonard adds, turning to Sara, “We’ll fix up telemetry. See if we can stop the ship from hurtling through space.”

“How big are the holes in the ship?” Kendra asks, just before the team exits the fabrication room and splits off.  
“Approximately two meters in diameter each,” Gideon answers, “There are supplies in the cargo hold which will help with the life support module.”

Sara looks up to the roof with a puzzled look, “Don’t you have some auto repair function?”  
“The effect of the automated field maintenance unit is limited. It cannot repair hill or modules that are no longer there,” Gideon responds. 

“I’ll get my A.T.O.M. suit,” Ray adds, “Should be able to modify it and help with fixing the ship.”

Everyone nods and the team splits off into two. 

XXX

With Lance in tow, Leonard dashed across the ship to retrieve his cold gun before they arrived at the door to the telemetry control room and began observing the damage. Blast marks littered the computer system, shrapnel from the hull itself and the explosive payload pierced into the module and the surrounding walls. The hole was just under two meters in diameter, but it was jagged and imperfect. 

“What should we do first?” Sara asked, her head pressed against the glass window of the bulkhead door beside Snart.  
“Gideon?” Snart delegates to the AI. 

“Telemetry is severely damaged. Several components have been damaged and blasted out of the hull, which will require replacing. However, sensors have been damaged in this room and I would be unable to guide you through the procedures. I recommend you start by patching the hole,” Gideon suggested. 

“We just need to find something to block the hole and then seal it,” Sara turned to Snart, “Your cold gun should be able to freeze it in place.”  
“Captain Hunter’s maintenance kit is in his office,” Gideon added, “You also have less than six minutes of breathable oxygen.”

Snart looked at Lance, “Better be quick, assassin. I’ll look for a panel or something to cover the hole.”

Sara nodded and began running as fast as she could in the cumbersome vac-suit back to the bridge. She returned over a minute later with the satchel of Rip’s equipment. With Gideon’s reluctant permission, Snart used a drill from Rip’s satchel and detached a floor panel, exposing wires and cables running through the body of the ship. 

“If you are ready, please fasten your masks so I may begin decompression,” Gideon requested.

Leonard and Sara attached their face mask to the suit, doing checks on each other to ensure that the seal was airtight before activating their rebreathers. Then they switched from the open channel to a private link between the two of them before signalling Gideon to proceed. 

The air visibly trailed into the vents and within a few seconds, Gideon had equalised the pressure in the corridor with that of the telemetry control’s room. The door slid open and Snart hauled the large panel into the room followed by Sara holding the satchel of tools. 

“Wow,” Sara was the first to reach the hole in the hull, taking the time to observe space through the makeshift window, “It’s beautiful.”

Millions of stars, some large, some small, all twinkling in the distances, hundreds and thousands of light years away.

“Imagine being able to float out there,” she says with awe. 

Leonard stands behind Sara, looking over her shoulder out of the hole of the ship, “No thanks. I have no intention of being in the middle of all that unfiltered radiation.” 

Sara turns around and looks up to Snart, raising an eyebrow through her visor, “Are you scared of a spacewalk?”  
Leonard squints his eyes at her, “Space seems great and all when you’re on Earth, but when you’re out here, the only thing protecting you from a slow, suffocating, freezing, and radiated death, is just a thin layer of metal and fabric. Excuse me if I like the idea of not potentially freezing.”

Sara smirks, “Is it ironic that Captain Cold is scared of freezing to death?”  
Leonard rolls his eyes and makes an exaggerated sigh through the comms, “Just hand me the cutter, will you? Have to smooth out the edges of the hole before I can get the panel to fit.”

Lance picks up the cutter from Rip’s tool kit and hands it to him, standing back and watching him in his suit stomp over to the hole and begin slicing away the jagged pieces of metal. 

Being able to stay back and watch, gives her time to think about how the past week stuck on this ship has been. In particular, she thinks about the time spent getting, close, to Leonard Snart, and how enjoyable it has been. As much as she wants to get this mission over and done with, she’s grateful that this downtime has given her the opportunity to be in Leonard’s company.

Whenever Raymond, Jax or Stein was around, they were always talking about something scientific, and while Sara would try to listen and make sense of it, sometimes it was just too much, and she felt out of place, as if she couldn’t really contribute. 

Kendra was good to be around. They would chat while they train, and it was fun, but they didn’t do much together apart from that. Very quickly, Sara found herself gravitating towards the presence of Leonard Snart. She had felt it beginning since he talked her out of shooting Stein, the moment when he helped her hold onto her humanity. 

Comfortable, is the word Sara would use to describe being around Leonard. He didn’t make her feel like she was intruding in on his space, as if he was more than pleased to have her around as well. It allowed her to relax whenever they were together, slouching back in the chair as they play cards or do whatever else they did to pass the time. 

He was also very, companionable. Although, she’s certain that if he heard her call him that, his stubbornness would ensure he becomes grumpy and spend an entire week trying to prove he’s not. But even that had a certain charm that she has grown to like. 

And much like his charm, she found she quite liked his apparel. Those icy eyes, the stubble under his chin and the short bristles of hair on his head were quite attractive. And a few times, she wouldn’t have minded if he just rolled up those long sleeves. 

Sara had a lot of empathy for Snart in his current situation with Mick. All stuck together on a ship for an entire week meant that there were bound to moments that had almost gotten out of hand. Nothing had come of them fortunately, except for sour moods in the following hours. Snart would often be heard snapping at anyone who tried to disturb him or get in his way, but Sara found a bit of warmth in the fact that at dinner time each night, he would knock on her door with a plate of food and a deck of cards in his hands. 

Admittedly, she realises now that although she has come to enjoy Snart’s presence, their small talk and banter, she knows relatively little about him as a character. He was a crook, in and out of jail multiple times, and preferred the cooler elements over the hot. It was partially her fault, however. Over the week there had been plenty of opportunities, with just the two of them alone, for her to ask even some basic questions, and the opportunities she did take advantage of, were pretty lame at best.

She had just felt so comfortable around him, that she didn’t even realise that Snart had been slowly prying information out of her. None of his questions were too personal, just simple and vague topics that she would answer instinctively. It was unprecedented of her, and it makes her wonder if she is either confident in trusting him, or foolish. Sara will not deny that she’s leaning significantly more to the former over the latter. 

With the opportunity that being alone in the telemetry room presents them, Sara decides not to waste this chance. 

“What else does Captain Cold not like?” Sara asks with a light and amused tone.  
“Getting arrested.”

She can practically hear the smirk through the comms in their suit. Rolling her eyes, she sighs loudly into the comms, knowing that the audible exhale is going to be heard right in his ears. 

The sparks of the cutter stop for a moment, and she watches him turn his head to cast a disapproving look at her. Sara has a highly amused grin on her face, her hands behind her back as she tries to play off an innocent stance. She is far from innocent. 

Leonard grunts back loudly into the comms before turning back to the task at hand and re-igniting the heated cutter. For a few minutes, the only sounds that can be heard are that of their breathing and the vibrations through the metal of the hull. 

“Being out of control.”

“Excuse me?” Sara was examining some of the shrapnel that was lodged into the telemetry module when Leonard’s voice surprised her. 

Leonard doesn’t seem to stop cutting away the jagged edges, “I don’t like being out of control.”

Looking only at the back of the bulky vac-suit and helmet, she can’t exactly discern him as Leonard Snart. And with how focused the figure looks at cutting away the metal around the hole, she almost doesn’t believe that the voice in the comms belongs to the person by the hull. 

“I very much prefer when I’m in control of the situation,” Leonard continues, “I like to have everything set out, all the variables accounted for. That’s not to say I can’t handle being out of control. I just don’t like it and try to avoid finding myself in that situation as much as possible.”

Sara stands just a few meters back from him, “Is that why you won’t get drunk? Because you don’t want to lose control?”

She remembers how during their first trip to the bar, Mick and herself had no problem taking drink after drink. She was looking to get a little drunk, but she had noticed that Leonard was more methodical and paced in his consumption, and she remembers wondering why during that moment. After the bar fight and the scene with Chronos outside the Waverider, she had simply forgotten about it until now. 

And then there was the small celebration after they escaped the Russian Gulag. While it was cut short due to being thrown into 2046, she had noticed that Leonard took only one shot while the others continued. After they returned to the time stream before unsuspectingly settling down for the long week, the team finished off some of the other bottles the first night, and once again, Leonard was methodical in his consumption. 

The sparks of the cutter stop for a moment, and she watches him lean back and observe the work, “Something like that,” his tone indicating that is about as good of an answer as she’s going to get.

Sara nods, pointless as he’s not looking in her direction. Curiosity lingers in her mind, the natural craving for information wanting further explanation and detail, but for the time being, she will be content with the answer he provided. She doesn’t want to spook him and risk him shutting her off by asking another question. Besides, his answer is more than she expected in the first place. 

XXX

“How long do you think it’ll be?” Kendra asks, handing Raymond a spanner.  
Raymond hums as he sticks his hand further into the life support module, “Should only take a few hours.”

“I mean how long do you think it’ll be before Sara and Leonard get together?”

“Sara and Leonard?” Raymond looks up at her with a shocked face, as if she’s describing something absolutely profound and unbelievable.  
Kendra’s brow furrow as she reacts to Raymond’s expression, “You don’t see it?”  
Raymond pauses for a moment, “I don’t really know. They don’t even look like actual friends. They sit in silence as far as I know.”

“Actions speak louder than words Ray,” Kendra points out, “Besides, didn’t you see them at lunch yesterday? It looked so nice to see them both smiling.”

Raymond laughs, “I’m pretty sure they would both kill you if they heard you talking about them like that.”  
Kendra laughs too, “But they’d kill me, together,” she emphasises, “My death would only bring them closer, and I’m okay with that.”

Raymond laughs and shakes his head, “I still don’t see it,” the scientist sits back and removes his hand from the mechanism, “Alright. I think we can get started.”

XXX

Cold, silent beams of frost fired from Snart’s gun. Sara was holding the panel against the surface of the hull, covering the entirety of the breach, while Snart was carefully tracing the edges trying to not clip Sara in any way. Ice formed the seal over the metal, and within eight minutes of careful application of cold energy, the seal was complete. 

Sara stepped back once Snart finished the final piece, looking at the makeshift hull repair, “Think it will hold?”  
“It has too,” Snart responded, checking over his gun and frowning at the very low charge, “All the metal is with the others to repair the life support. This will have to last until we get back into atmosphere.”

“And for that, we need telemetry controls,” Sara continued, turning from Snart to face the damaged module.  
“Need to repair the internal sensors first so Gideon can see into this room properly,” Snart drawled, pointing to some of the marks on the wall.

“Warning,” Gideon’s voice surprises them as she suddenly intrudes on their comms, “Gravity fields are being disabled.”

“Why?” Leonard frowns at the ceiling, reactively leaning back and engaging the magnetic boots. 

“The power feeding into the life support module was heavily damaged,” Gideon answers, “To prevent the risk of overloading the ship and or death of crew, the ship needs to enter low power mode.”

Leonard is often taken back by how casual Gideon can sound when explaining that they might all die. Something about the natural positive tone almost makes him feel good about their dire situation. He supposes that was the intention behind Gideon’s programming. 

“Will you still be able to help Gideon?” Sara asks, mimicking Leonard’s action and activating her own boots.  
“Yes. I will be able to monitor your progress, but I will be unable to provide much assistance,” Gideon informs regretfully, “I can do this, however.”

Small lights appear on the wall of the room, indicating where the damaged sensors are, which make it incredibly convenient for them to identify the problem and observe the damage. 

“Gravity fields are being disabled now,” as soon as Gideon goes silent, Leonard and Sara feel their bodies become weightless as the invisible force on their shoulders dissipates. 

Leonard feels uneasy for a moment as his organs begin adjusting to the fact they don’t need to work as hard to pump blood around his body. Still, magnetic boots regardless, he doesn’t like zero-gravity. 

“Come on,” Leonard groans, kicking the bag of tools in the direction of the nearest sensor, “Let’s fix this bloody thing.”

Snart walks up to the first of six sensors and pulls open the panel to expose the tech behind it. His mind is still thinking back to the question Sara had asked him earlier, and the response he gave which was almost surprising to himself. 

He wasn’t sure what prompted that kind of response. If someone else had asked that question, he would normally just string them along with more answers like getting arrested. But it was Sara who asked that question, and his response was more personal than what would be normal for him. 

While he didn’t go into great lengths in explaining, he could see that she understood a bit of it. She was spot on with the question about his refusal to get drunk. 

His father was a leading cause for his determination to stay in control. After he returned from prison, the typically casual and thankfully harmless drinking turned into a frequent, dangerous and violent addiction. An addiction that Snart and his sister paid the price for numerous times. Leonard made a promise to himself that he’d never dance with the chance of going into a drunken rage like his father. 

Leonard promised himself to stay in control of his actions. His life is his own to live out. And every action he makes, he believes is because he chose to make it. It’s why Leonard has a strong and passionate disliking towards topics of destiny and fate. He doesn’t want to believe that he’s playing a script, because he doesn’t think his mind would be able to cope, should that be true. 

“Earth to Snart?” Sara waved a hand in front of his visor, “You okay?”  
Snart didn’t realise that he had gotten so lost in his thoughts that he had completely stopped, “Yeah, I’m fine,” he snapped, a natural and instinctive response to cover up the slight embarrassment.

Sara imagined that he was trying to build some ice wall between them as she took a step back from him. She didn’t want him to feel like he has to do that. 

His tells are subtle, but she has learnt that he doesn’t like feeling exposed, probably as much as he doesn’t like being out of control. The long sleeve shirts and pants, the thick parkas and jackets that he wears even when the ambient temperature should be making him feel uncomfortable. The crook wears them because they are his walls. 

She had asked him casually at the start of the week how he can tolerate wearing that stuff when the cargo bay had felt incredibly humid, but he gave her an answer in a way that slightly deviated the conversation that she didn’t realise had happened until days later. She did notice, however, that he didn’t wear the jacket or the parka after that event. 

There was no intention of pursuing the topic any further. When the possibility of 'why' entered her mind, she knew it wasn’t her place to seek answers. She remembers how she didn’t like being exposed when she came back from the League, all those marks on her arms and body that she didn’t want people looking at. 

Sara realises that for the first time this week, he might actually be shutting her out, and something inside Sara demands she prevent it from happening. 

“You want to know what I don’t like? Or I suppose, what scares me the most?” her tone is soft, and there’s a silent plea in there that he’ll say yes and allow her to continue. 

Leonard makes no physical movement or indication that he’s heard her, and for a moment, she thinks that maybe she has finally lost him and made things awkward between. But then. 

“Go right ahead,” the drawling accent comes through the comms. 

Sara stares at his back for a few seconds, smiling through her visor, “The ocean. Or more specifically I should say, being on a boat in the ocean.”

“You get sea-sick or something?” Snart groans as she watches his twist a piece of the electronics, only to have sparks burst past his head as clips the wrong component, “Where’s the bloody kid when you need him?” he grumbles to himself, still coming through the comms. 

His question, the first one, makes her realise that he still doesn’t know of her past and the Queen’s Gambit.

“No. But I wish it was that simple,” Sara lets out a small laugh, finding that the laughter makes it easier for her to talk about it, “I just have a terrible track record with boats. I was about seven or eight when I went on a ferry with my dad. We were on the viewing platform at the top, and he was taking pictures of me when the weather picks up and the water starts getting rough. There I was,” Sara can remember the scene clearly in her head, “standing by the railing at the edge of the platform, when a huge wave tips the ferry to the side.”

A small chuckle can be heard from him over the comms, and part of her is glad that she’s able to remember and tell this as a funny story now instead of the frightening horror it was when she was younger. 

“Almost slipped and fell under the railings. God, I was so scared back then,” Sara continues, her tone sounding light and warm, “Dad says I cried for the rest of the ride until we got back to land. Terrified my little heart for years, and I refused to step on a boat again for so long.”

Leonard turns his head to look over his shoulder, “You know a spaceship is really just a boat in space?”  
Sara rolls her eyes and pokes out her tongue at him, “I’m aware, smartass.”

Leonard chuckles and focuses back on the sensors. 

“Like I said, my track record with boats is terrible. I snuck onboard the Queen’s Gambit with Oliver Queen. For the first few days, everything was going well. And then a storm hits us, and the yacht explodes.”

“The yacht explodes?” Leonard asks with disbelief and surprise in his voice, stopping the work on the sensor to look over his shoulder. 

He'd heard about the Queen's Gambit sinking of course, but he just thought it sunk. 

“Yep. I get thrown under the water with the wreckage and almost drown,” Sara throws her arms into the air in defeat, sighing exasperatedly.

Leonard looks at her and shakes his head, turning back to the sensor in the wall. 

“Then after being stranded on a floating piece of the wreckage for a day, some nutjob science team who lives on a boat finds me in the water,” Sara finds that as she goes on, not even she can find the humour in this part, “The captain was the only reason I survived. He grew fond of me. Looked after me,” her voice goes soft and loses all the exaggeration and flair, “as long as I did certain things for him. But was either do that and survive, or die.”

The light by the sensor goes out, signalling that Leonard’s task is finished. He turns around silently, looking at her through the visors. There is no need for him to open his mouth to convey that he understands. His expression is enough. 

“So yeah,” Sara rocks on her feet, accidentally disengaging the magnetic locks and surprising herself when she starts drifting forwards into Leonard. 

His hands reach out for her, grabbing her by the arms and lowering her back onto the metal floor. The magnets click back on with a thud, and Sara is grateful that the microphones in the suit don’t pick up heartbeats, because her's are racing. 

Sara didn’t expect to open up as much as she did, and yet, she just did. She had certainly never told anyone about the events of the Amazo, even in a summarised and vague retelling as just now. But for some reason, inexplicable to Sara, she has told this to Leonard Snart. 

Why?

He’s close to her, hands still on the arms of her suit, holding her to the ground. His expression is soft, and his eyes are fixated on her. The glare from the torches on their suits obscures the colour through the glass visor, but she looks back at him. 

Does she regret telling him? Not at all.

“Your luck with boats sucks,” Leonard removes his hands from her arms. He begins to move away, heading in the direction of another sensor, “Here we are, tumbling through space on a ship, trying to fix it before we all run out of oxygen. If I didn’t know any better,” he looks back in her direction for a brief second, “I’d think you’ve cursed us.”

He’s trying to make to make her laugh, and it works. She smiles at his back as he pulls open another panel and begins taking a look. 

Now if only her heart would stop racing. 

“I met your father many years ago,” Snart spoke after a few moments of silence.  
Sara tilted her head and watched Snart continue working on the sensor, “Why do I have feeling it wasn’t for something good?” she could practically hear the grin on his face as she said it.

“I was 17,” Snart continued, “currently in Starling City while my father was in prison again. Lisa was with my grandfather and I felt the need to get away from Central City for a bit.”

“Starling is pretty far from Central,” Sara points out.  
Leonard glances back and nods, “That’s why I picked it. One day I’m walking through the Glades going about my business, living off pick-pocketing cash and robbing convenience stores. I was stuffing some food into my jacket when I see this girl walk into the store. Long red hair, thin shirt and short shorts, my age. I had gotten so distracted by her, I didn’t realise the store clerk had seen me and called the cops.”

Leonard remembers that day vividly, for more reasons than one. He remembers how fixated his gaze had been on her as she walked in, and the way she had caught him looking and flashed a flirty smile in his direction. Little did he know, he had been hooked. 

Sara lets out a laugh, “Are you telling me, that Leonard Snart couldn’t withstand the power of hormones?”  
Snart sighed and shrugged, “The curse of being a horny 17-year-old huh,” adding a bit more exaggeration to his tone, “As you can probably imagine, I’m now sitting in the middle of the convenience store waiting for the police to show. Quinten Lance arrives and arrests me.”

“Oh, he was still just an officer back then, wasn’t he?” Sara realises that she was still just a baby when this would have happened. 

God, that’s something for her to think about. 

“Your father recognised me,” Leonard grunts as he tugs on a faulty piece of the sensor, “wasn’t surprising since most departments had heard about my father back then. My streak of juvie and community sentences didn’t help either.”

“What did my dad do?” Sara finds interest in the topic, noting that this is an opportunity to learn more about Leonard, as well as her father.

“He tried to help,” Leonard answers calmly, “He didn’t want to book me. I figured he understood my need to get away from Central City, and that if he did book me, I’d be sent back home. So he offered to help me find some work for teenagers with a record.”

“Did you take it?” 

Leonard huffs, “No. I was too stubborn to accept any kind of help, especially from a cop,” he looks over his shoulder and flashes a sympathetic smile, “No offence.”

Sara waves a dismissive hand, “Then what?”  
“Your dad let me go. Told me that if he ever found out I committed another crime in Starling, he’d be the first to sign those paper that would send me back to Central City,” Snart answers with a chuckle. 

“And why do I feel like you didn’t take that threat to heart?” Sara raises an eyebrow at his back. 

“I did try,” Snart sounds genuine, “For about a week. I didn’t steal anything. Just used the money I had already acquired and tried to extend it over the week. But then I met that girl from the convenience store again, and with my natural 17-year-old charms and rugged good looks, convinced her to go on a date with me.”

“Leonard Snart was a romantic?” Sara looks at him with wide eyes, “I don’t believe it.”

She should, because he vividly remembered how long he spent in the bathroom trying to clean himself up before he was going to meet her. Some might say he was about to have a meeting with the President or the Queen, and to him back then, he might as well be. It was a first for him, and he wanted it to go as perfect as possible, unlike the recent failed attempt at shoplifting. 

“I wasn’t always a cold and ruthless punk,” Snart drawled, “She says yes and after a few dates, I find out she’s a thief like me. Soon I had forgotten all about your father’s threat.”  
“I bet the people of Starling City never stood a chance against you two,” Sara laughs, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Damn straight,” Snart then groaned as he tried to look at what he was doing to the sensor, “I can’t see what I’m reaching for. Can you take a look?”

Well, that was a lie. Technically Snart could do it by himself, albeit taking a bit longer, but it was a good way of putting a momentary pause in the conversation. 

Memories of Alexa, especially in the good years of that relationship are always a tough spot for Leonard.

Sara nodded and walked up to the gap in the wall and peered under Snart’s arm that was outstretched far into the wall. Sara guided him through the internals of the system and helped him correctly target the right circuit to fix up. After about a few minutes, Snart was done and Sara stepped back as Snart moved onto the next sensor.

He wouldn’t admit, to anyone whatsoever, but there was a great sense of comfort in him at the close proximity between them. And although it was something so menial such as just guiding him and making it more efficient, there was pleasure to be had in knowing that her directions and instructions were solid and could be trusted on. Too many times he’d been disappointed in crewmates who couldn’t provide a clear set of instructions or do a simple task. 

“So how does a relationship between two thieves work?” she asked curiously, although she regretted it when she could see the obvious tension begin to coil up inside the crook.

Snart took a long breath and tried to keep calm. He should have figured that the assassin would ask about it. The redheaded figment of his conscious looked at the assassin, and he didn’t miss the familiar gun held in her hand. The one she had during that heist. 

“It doesn’t,” Snart drawled, “because in the end, we’re just two thieves looking out for number one, and someone gets shot in the back.”

The truth behind the message was clear. Sara doesn’t say anything, letting the void of sound reside between them as Snart continues to work on the next sensor. Her mind was racing with thoughts of Snart, trying to imagine him as someone completely different. Whatever had happened during the events that lead to him being shot, had seemingly been the spark that started the rise of the cold, sarcastic Leonard Snart that she had come to know. 

As naïve as it realistically, especially since she hasn’t experienced it any other way, she’s glad that all these events in their messed-up lives have occurred in the right way to provide her with the opportunity of meeting Snart the way he is now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was some heavy inspiration from The Expanse in this entire work.
> 
> Here's the next chapter. Please enjoy.

More than usual, Mick’s mind was drifting. The female Time Captain kept glancing over to him. She was judging him obviously, but his mind still hadn’t figured out what she had overly determined. Maybe she hadn’t decided already. 

Still, he could easily imagine picking her up and throwing her across the room, slamming her into one of the metal pipes that run across the back of their prison cell. The kid and Hunter would try to stop him obviously, but they wouldn’t do it in time to save the other woman. 

He glanced over to see Rip standing near the forcefield. He saw how it shocked the captain when he tried to bust through it earlier, and it made Mick wonder whether it was possible to press the captain’s face against the energy barrier. 

Another explosion of sparks flew from the panel that the kid was trying to hotwire. Mick didn’t mind the young mechanic, but he’s not going to do anything if the kid electrocutes himself. He no longer cares anymore. 

Screw them all. Mick had accepted the idea of coming aboard the Waverider because he was promised loot and the chance to burn things. But also knew that Snart needed to get out of Central City for a bit. He knew about the situation with the neck-bomb in Lisa and how Snart had to kill Lewis. After being broken out of prison by Mardon, Leonard found Mick again, but it was clear that the cold thief wasn’t acting entirely like himself. 

Mick had hoped that this trip would fix that, and they’d be able to get back to robbing. Back to the way things are meant to be. Cause that’s what Mick really cares about. 

And the trip was going alright too at the start. The bar fight was a blast, the auction was a bigger blast, technically nuclear, and he got to break into the home of Vandal Savage and steal some stuff. Carter’s death was only a minor grievance for Mick, but it was enough to keep him motivated and interested. Gave him an extra reason for burning, killing and executing the plans that come up. 

It was going well. 

And then it wasn’t. 

Because hidden in the context and purpose of these missions, was the underlying notion that they were doing this in the name of being considered heroes, and the thought brought vile to Mick’s throat. 

It repulsed him. Made him feel sick. He thought Snart would be disgusted by it too, but he was wrong. Snart just ate it all up. Those damaged pieces of the cold criminal, which should have been repaired by going back to their roots, crime sprees with the added bonus of time travel, were instead being repaired with this ridiculous notion that they were doing the heroic deeds. Mick couldn’t tolerate, and it frustrated him that Snart was getting closer and closer to accepting the idea of becoming some sort of damned hero, regardless of how Snart would try to deny it. 

He could think of a few reasons why Snart had changed. The first being in the cell with him right now. Captain Rip ‘lost my family and I’m sad’ Hunter. Telling his sob story to the team, slowly manipulating them all to follow him on this stupid mission. Mick had a terrible life, but he didn’t complain. He most certainly didn’t form a band of misfits and want to travel through time and fix it. 

And don’t forget the Flash. That red spandex do-gooder that had been poisoning Snart’s mind with words of heroism and honour. It seemed that after every encounter with the speedster, something about Snart’s attitude changed and there would be some new rule or condition that Mick was forced to follow. 

If they had just killed the Flash when they had the opportunity, maybe they wouldn’t have found themselves recruited for the Waverider. 

Which leads straight onto problem number three. Sara Lance. It was clear that Snart immediately became attracted to her. Hell, Mick is pretty sure everyone is at least somewhat attracted by the assassin. He just didn’t think it would come between him and Snart. 

Mick remembers that gut-wrenching moment, where Mick actually felt a slight tinge of emotional hurt. When his partner decided that being with Sara and continuing the mission was more important than living the perfect lives as criminals in 2046. Leonard has said that Slade’s men were going to kill their friends, and they both knew that neither of them considered Rip a friend. Which only left Sara. 

The admiration for the assassin was quickly replaced with jealously, and Mick didn’t care if that was considered petty. And he certainly didn’t care when his supposed partner knocked him out. 

That had been the tipping point of everything. 

The problem between Mick and Snart only grew worse as the week went on. He couldn’t stand to be in the same room with Snart or Lance for too long, because he knew that he’d eventually snap and would kill them in his rage. A burning rage and fire within that grew with each hour Leonard became less and less of his partner. 

Mick watched the last 30 years of his life fade away, and he was lost. He didn’t know what to do. That was always Snart’s job. As dependent as that sounds, Snart was guidance for his rage, a targeting system for the explosive payload that was Mick Rory’s fiery temper. And now his partner didn’t seem to care. At least not about him anymore. Mick didn’t want to be on the time ship anymore. He didn’t want to be stopping Savage. He wanted to go home to Central City. At least he could handle the city being against him. 

Another spark exploded from the console as the kid failed to successfully hotwire the shield. The woman beside Mick looked away, rolling her eyes at the predictable failure. Hunter was standing close to the shield. Maybe now was a good time to kill the captain. 

“Don’t worry kid,” Mick looked at his hands, trying to guess how much pressure he’d need to apply to keep Hunter pinned to the shield, “It’s not your fault. It’s his.”  
Rip let out a frustrated huff, “In case you forgot Mr Rory, you volunteered to be part of this boarding party.”

“I volunteered to get away from my partner, who thanks to you, hasn’t been acting like my partner,” Mick snapped.  
“Your partner has a mind of his own, Mr Rory,” Hunter turned around and his eyes drilled into Mick, “Which is more than I can say about you.”

Mick looked up, rage boiling inside him, and returned a fiery glare at the captain. Mick knew exactly what the captain meant by that statement. A nerve was struck as a result of that jab to his dependency on Snart’s guidance. Forget smearing his face against the shield, Mick would gladly strangle the life out of him right here, right now. 

He couldn’t care less about what Rip was saying right now. Something about trying to get out of the brig and rescue his stranded crew. Mick was getting fed up with this captain’s bullshit. Messing with Snart’s head and manipulating him to wanting to be a hero and part of a team. Mocking him. He’d had enough. 

“Shut your mouth!” Mick growled as he leapt out of his seat and began storming over to the captain. 

Fear spread over his target’s face and Mick silently relished in it. Good. Mick would have pressed it further, but the kid stepped in between them.

“Or what? You’ll punch me in the face or burn me alive. Or employ some other barbaric means of ending my life?” Rip mocked.

Mick frowned. Rip was sounding as if the skills Mick is good for, are unsatisfactory or unacceptable. Almost as if they’re not wanted. 

“That’s why you recruited me, isn’t it?” Mick glared curiously through squinted eyes, “To torch, maim and rob?”

Rip shrunk the gap between their faces, and Mick would have laughed at how amusedly small the captain was, yet still trying to be intimidating. 

“No, I recruited you because you and your partner were a package deal!”

The words were like a slap to the face. Mick was shocked as his brain processed what was just said. Did he mishear?

“What?” Mick asked simply, taken aback.  
Rip laughed, twisting the blade deeper, “I’m sorry Mr Rory. A serial arsonist was never part of my plan to stop Savage. Much less one with the IQ of meat!”

Mick stopped paying attention. His mind processed the statement and the scale of the situation. Mick’s world may as well have been crashing down around him, because what he feared had come to fruition. He was never needed or desired for this mission. Only Snart. And because of that, Snart had slowly been turned against him, leaving only Mick on Team Mick with no partners. 

He had been right about everything, and that surprised the pyro just as much. He almost prayed on his mind being wrong. That maybe there was some other reason for everything happening the way it did. But no. His life was being destroyed, pieces were taken out of it, without care on how those missing pieces left Mick. 

There was a plan. One that sprung to his mind. His plan, made up entirely of his own mind. No one else to tell him what to do. He was a crook. A criminal. And he was going to bloody prove it to them. 

“Can anyone hear me?” Mick shouted, standing close to the shield and trying to reach a pirate.  
“What the hell are you doing?” Rip gritted through his teeth.  
Mick turned around slowly, giving the captain a dismissive look, “Me and the pirates are going to have a little parley.

He ignored the kid and watched the pirates walk up to the other side of the shield. The black haired and bearded guy again. Would the hair burn against the shield and set the pirate alight?

“I want to speak to Captain Valor,” Mick explained, eyeing the guy to the pirate’s left. A big gun he could probably crush the wielder’s skull with if he tried. At least before getting shot.  
“About what?” the black-haired pirate asked.  
“About a Time Ship,” Mick answered.

“I am warning you,” Rip gritted, threating Mick. 

Wrong move. Mick rushed the captain, lifting him up by the scruff of his neck and slamming him against the back of the wall. He could kill the man right now. Slam his head against those pipes hard enough and the skull would crack. Internal haemorrhaging would finish him off, but Rory wanted him to suffer. 

He dropped the captain and stormed back over to the shield and waited for the pirate to lower it and allow him through. The escorts immediately placed their guns against his back. It was a refreshing feeling actually. The kind of thing that gave him some adrenaline, because god help him he needed something to stop him thinking about how he was going to kill each one of his teammates. It allowed him to focus on how he could try and kill each one of these pirates and take this ship for himself. But why would he want to do that when he could simply use them to get back home?

XXX

Less than an hour remained in their oxygen bottles, which means they would have to shortly go and retrieve the spare bottles before they start choking on CO2. The conversations had died off between Leonard and Sara, at least, none so personal as their last. They were still coming to grips with themselves about their confessions. 

Unbeknownst to them, the ice-seal around the metal sheet was cracking. When the seal had been completed, pressure had begun stabilising in the room, and yet the sound of the ice slowly breaking went unheard. 

The sensors had all been completed. Leonard found it was easy to focus and pretend that each of them was like a brand-new lock. It was relaxing in the sense that he could let his mind do what it did best. See something, learn all about it, figure out how to fix it and then develop more efficient ways of performing that same task. Still, he didn’t mind calling for a bit of assistance from his companion, and whilst the close proximity and their improved speed was pleasant, they remain in relative quietness. 

For the past half hour, Leonard and Sara had been removing most of the shrapnel from the telemetry module. Pieces of jagged metal from the missile were floating around the room slowly, bouncing off the walls in the zero-gravity. Once it had been cleared, they were able to begin following Gideon’s instructions on how to repair what was left of the telemetry controls. Neither of them was like Jax or Raymond with their mechanical and engineering proficiency, but they still tried and were able to follow the instructions for the most part. 

Then the ice cracked, and chaos struck. The pressure which had returned began venting, began leaking out through a hole in the ice seal. While the magnetic tools were attached to the walls to stop them from floating around, the discarded shrapnel remained free. For the pressure to escape, it had to go past them. 

Sara didn’t realise what was happening until the first piece of shrapnel flew past her visor at high speeds. Her head snapped in the direction of the moving object and followed it to where the metal and ice had formed a new hole. 

“Leonard! Watch out!” she cried out over the comms. 

A few more shards headed their way, and Sara reached out to the Snart and pulled him back. He stumbled at the sudden shift in movement and almost tripped over her. He just saw a piece of shrapnel fly past his chin before Sara pulled him down to the ground. They both laid as prone as they could, heads pointed down as pieces of metal flew over them and out the hole in the hull. 

For the next minute, they were unmoving until they were absolutely certain the last of the metal had been vented from the ship. Sara stood up, checking the surroundings and assessing the damage. From her quick observation, everything seemed clear. 

“Gideon?” Sara spoke into the comms, “What happened?”  
“The ice has broken away. It will need to be resealed,” Gideon’s voice then turned more concerned, “But I strongly recommend you check on Mr Snart.”

Sara looked down at Snart who was kneeling in front of her, trying to get back on his feet. The problem was evident just at a glance. The tube that loops around their back from the bottle was severed and spewing oxygen from the cut section. 

“Leonard, your oxygen is leaking,” Sara spoke, placing a hand on his shoulder. 

She felt some vibrations through the suit and he waved a hand to dismiss her help as he rose to his feet. But no response came from Snart. 

“Leonard?” she asked again, but still there was no response. 

Concerned, she walked around to face him instead of looking at his back. His eyes were narrowed as he looked at her, but his mouth was also moving, and he looked to be asking her a question. She couldn’t hear him though. No sound was coming through his comms. 

She looked down at his wrist and saw that the panel that controlled his suit had a piece of metal sticking from it. Snart’s gaze followed hers and she could practically feel him curse under his breath when he realised what happened. 

“Gideon! Help!” Sara called out.  
“Mr Snart’s suit has been damaged,” Gideon said, “I cannot communicate with him, and he cannot communicate with us either. His oxygen is leaking and within two minutes he will suffocate.”

Sara stamped her feet in frustration, closing the gap to Snart and placing a hand on his arm, “How do I save him, Gideon?”

Snart looked at her curiously, which indicated to her that he had yet to realise how deadly of a situation he was in. That was good, Sara thought, because she’s starting to freak out about this. 

“Use your oxygen,” Gideon replies. 

“Right!” Sara exclaims. 

She raises her hands in a gesture to instruct Snart to stay where he is. He nods silently, but Sara could already see the mist forming on his visor and the beginnings of a strained expression on his face. His body would soon realise new oxygen wasn’t coming in. 

The passing minute was tense and frantic for Sara as she raced from Leonard to the satchel of Rip’s equipment, and back to Leonard. She turned off the tap to his oxygen bottle to prevent further leakage, and then using the nozzle-tipped tube she found in the bag, pierced it into her oxygen tube, and then plugged the other end into Leonard's rebreather. 

Essentially, she had created a bridge between her oxygen bottle and his rebreather. 

Panic had risen in her as she noticed him start stumble and buckle beside her while she was trying to get the tubes to attach, and she didn’t realise she was holding her breath until she had inserted the nozzle into Leonard’s tube and allowed him to take in a breath of air. 

“Gideon?” Sara let out a panting breath, pinching the tube to Leonard’s suit and give herself a breath of air, “What now?”  
“Mr Snart will need a new tube, otherwise you will need to continue sharing air,” Gideon answered. 

“Great,” she mutters, casting a quick glance at Snart before tapping her comms panel, “Hey guys, you there?”  
“Hey Sara,” the staggered replies of Kendra and Ray come over the comms. 

“Leonard’s in trouble. His suit is damaged. Comms are down on his end, and he’s having to share oxygen with me,” Sara explained, trying not to look at Snart.

It meant she didn’t see that the fear had finally set in on his face. He wasn’t sure if the universe was playing some trick on him, maybe punishing him for being so unforgiving to Mick. But he was okay for now, for the moment. He wasn’t dead. But the scale of the situation definitely loomed over him, and he realised how close it could have been. 

Sara pinched the tube, temporarily cutting off his supply so she could take some more breaths for herself. 

Leonard looked at her. This wasn’t weird at all, he tried to convince himself. No. This is completely fine. In fact, this is exactly how he imagined spending time with the assassin. Oh. Hold on. Nope. This isn’t fine, and he doesn’t imagine trying to share a share a single tank of oxygen while they wait for rescue. 

He grabbed Sara’s arm, the one with the panel. She didn’t resist, and he could feel the slight vibrations as she spoke into the comms as he held her arm. It felt weird now, not hearing her voice but seeing her mouth move. The panel lit up and he tapped it to display the amount of oxygen left in the bottle. 

They were three-hour bottles on average consumption, but they’d been talking and laughing early on. Right now, they had just less than 40 minutes in the bottle. And the suit calculates that for one person. 

Okay. 20 minutes or so. That can’t be too bad. 

He eyes Sara, watching her mouth close and turn to look at him. Her eyes drift to the display before focusing back on him. It was a weak smile, and it was obvious that it was an attempt to stay positive in this situation. She began talking again, using the tube to give her some air as she talked to the team. 

Over the course of the next minute, Snart watched a silent conversation. It felt like those old movies where the video was mute, and cards of text would have to be displayed to understand the dialogue. Except, he wasn’t getting any dialogue cards. And his lip reading was terrible too, so his only way of knowing what was going on was reliant on her expressions. And even that wasn’t going too well because the visor had been building up with fog, fading and emerging with each breath. 

He had let go of her arm and would peak at it from time to time, watching the oxygen percentage tick down by a single-digit every interval. She shook her head at him eventually, taking her hand away from Snart and dimming the display so it wasn’t visible. Watching a clock count down the time until they suffocate wasn’t going to help them get through this. 

Sara nodded, not to him, but more so to herself as she accepted the news. He didn’t know what was being said to her, but it mustn’t be good for them based on the confidence that was fading from her expression. 

A breath of air momentarily refreshed him, and he watched Sara tap the comms and disable it. If they weren’t wearing helmets, what Sara was doing would have had a totally different meaning and he felt his heart almost skip a beat. But his heart never did that, for anyone. He wasn’t starting to feel- No. Not Sara. Right?

Sara pressed the front of her helmet against his, the forehead and chin pieces of the helmet connecting and keeping the visor parted by a small gap. Now, he was staring in the eyes of Sara Lance, which were just inches from his own. 

Not the most romantic of situations, Leonard thinks. Definitely not in his top 10 moments of intimacy. He supposes that the whole running out of oxygen thing is why he’s struggling to find this closeness intimate. 

What catches him off-guard, is the images that start appearing in his mind. Situations where they are without the bulky and cumbersome suits. All week they’d been getting closer, but there was something usually between them. Whether it be the food, the cards, or the box they lean on, there was something between them. This was the closest they had been, and Leonard’s mind was hoping that the helmets weren’t in the way. 

“Can you hear me?” her muffled voice spoke, the vibrations travelling through her helmet and into his. 

Even through the suit, her voice still had a notable level of attraction to it. Soothing, calming, and relaxing even in a time like this. It was something for him to keep him focused on, and it prevented his mind from freaking out about their situation. 

“Yeah,” he responds weakly. 

Where does he aim his eyes? Does he look back into hers? Won’t it feel awkward at this range? Maybe her lips. God no, that would be weird. Or maybe he should just- hold on. Since when did Leonard Snart become so concerned about this kind of thing? Was Captain Cold getting flustered over the White Canary?

Instead, he opts to look past her, his gaze looking through the top of the visor and towards the module room around them. He almost jolts back, because for a moment there, he thought he saw a red-headed figure for a second. 

“How are you feeling? Everything smell alright? Any strange thoughts?” her serious tone still conveys its message through the vibrations of the suit. 

Oddly specific questions, he thinks. He squeezes his eyes shut before reopening them to look at hers, an uncertain expression on his face. His recent train of thought might be considered strange, and there was an unfamiliar smell, almost stale like. 

“Gideon can’t read your suit, but you could be suffering from hypoxia due to the leakage,” Sara explains, noting his confused expression. 

Oh. That was a comforting thought. Phew. For a moment there, he thought maybe he was starting to genuinely fall for the assassin. And then he has to ask himself. Is that such a bad thing?

“Stay focused,” she tapped her gloved hand on his hand, “Don’t start daydreaming on me.”

More like daydreaming of her, he almost blurts out. 

“Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?”  
A fresh puff of oxygen entered his suit and his eyes shoot wide open, focusing on Sara, “Good news. Disappoint me later,” he drawled.  
“Good news is that Kendra is going to get us fresh bottles and a new rebreather for your suit,” she said, her eyes looked as if that news wasn’t a good as it should be.  
“And the bad?”

“Well Raymond is currently out on the hull feeding power cables through the ceiling, and Kendra is in the middle of putting it together,” Sara explains, “And if she stops now, the ship might break apart.”

And now he knew why those beautiful eyes of her looked so defeated. Their only help was currently in a situation where leaving it could blow them all up. 

“Can’t we just float?” Snart realises that he’s actually being held in place by Lance. 

Maybe if she pushes him, he won’t hate zero-gravity so much. 

There’s another disconcerting look on her face, “The low power mode means that the doors and pressurisation system are disabled. We can’t turn the power back on or the ship will blow up.”

“Ah, gotcha,” he drawls. 

Did she like his voice? Was the drawl as attractive to her as her voice was to him? How would he even ask her to find out? Hey Sara, do you think my voice is sexy? Yeah, he’d rather suffocate than ask her that.

Then his mind focused on something else, as tired as it was. Mick. Snart felt bad. Maybe Sara was right and he had been a bit too harsh and pushy when it came to leading Mick. The man was his partner after all, and although their relationship was typically Leonard leads, Mick follows, Snart never thought of it as anything less than a partnership. 

It wasn’t without flaws obviously. Mistakes and fights happen between them, just like this. Things get heated, but they cool off, and Snart was hoping that this would pass. It felt wrong, dying here due to lack of oxygen. Every time Snart had come close to dying ever since his first appearance in juvie, Mick had always been there, and it was thanks to him most times that Snart was still alive. 

Not this time though. They were separated, by hundreds of thousands of miles of space between the two ships. The first time since their partnership that Snart was about to die and Mick wouldn’t be there. All because Snart had pushed him away.

Snart felt his head shake and eyes go dizzy as his mind refocused. Was she shouting at him?

“Stay focused, Snart!” her pleading voice reverberated through the physical touch of the suits, “Focus on me. That’s better.”

Curse this cruel and unforgiving universe. Not only is Mick not by his side, now he’s going to die in the arms of the woman he finally accepted the idea of being comfortable around. Hallucinations or not, there’s no denying that Snart ‘likes’ Sara Lance. There’s not a single reason not to like her, and every day just seems to generate more reason for him to continue liking her. And he’s by no means opposed to the idea of her liking him back and the chance for something, whatever it may be, to occur between them. 

But the chances of getting that opportunity were dwindling. Even without the panel of her arm, his brain could still guess the minutes passed. Would he pass out before dying? Would his brain shut down before the suffocation becomes painful? He wasn’t sure. What was dying like?

“Oh you arsehole,” Sara grumbles, shaking Leonard’s body, “Of course you’re too bloody stubborn to tell me you're hypoxic.”

He felt her move them both as he inhaled a fresh puff of oxygen. Sara pinned him sideways against the wall, his gaze facing the hole in the seal where this issue had arisen from. It was a small hole, and he could barely see the stars outside it. Her helmet wasn’t pressed against his anymore, and whatever she was saying went unheard. 

Sara was examining the damage to his rebreather, talking to Gideon about what had happened. The filters weren’t working properly, and at a very slow rate, CO2 was returning back into Snart’s helmet, regardless of how much oxygen he takes in. 

Sara’s training in the League had taught her about the conditions of hypoxia, and she knew that as time passes and he continues breathing, the unfiltered air will cause him to drift off. If he does pass out, she might not be able to wake him back up in time. 

After accepting that she can’t do anything to fix it, she sits them down the floor, extending their legs out to the central module and using the boots to lock them in place. Their heads turned at a 60-degree angle towards each other allow for that physical touch. Between the two of them, Sara holds the tube for Leonard’s oxygen, pinching it to prevent airflow so she can take some breaths every now and again. 

Had he had the energy, Snart thinks this would have been a smooth opportunity to swing an arm over her shoulder. Humorous for a moment, likely to earn him a jab in the ribs, but still. A pleasant thought. 

“Since I’m likely to die, got any advice for the afterlife? I imagine you have a unique perspective,” his voice croaked with the lack of oxygen, meaning his planned smooth accent drawl was out of the question now.

“You’ll hate it,” Sara responds dryly, “Gets really hot down there.”  
Snart smirks and notices the grin on her face, “You would know.”

They’re silent for a few seconds, and then Sara speaks, “I don’t know what it’s like. I remember dying, vividly. But not being dead.”  
“What was it like?”

“Lonely,” Sara’s voice barely has enough vibrational energy to get through the suit, “I had arrows sticking out of her chest, and all I cared about was that I was alone. Like everyone I loved was a million miles away. No one there to hold me as I fell. No one there to tell me it was going to be okay.”

“Then what?” Snart’s question was quiet too, but he eagerly listening.

“Then I woke up in the middle of a ritual circle which had restored my soul to my body,” Sara shrugs apologetically, “Whatever happens in between, I couldn’t tell you.”

Leonard is silent for a few moments, the sound of their faint breaths transferring through the suits.

“Hey,” Leonard slowly places his gloved hand over hers, the ends of his fingers holding onto the ends of hers, “We’ll fall together.”

Sara shifted her eyes to his hand over hers, and in response, she tightens her fingers around his. 

Emotions buzz around her body, her stomach feeling like butterflies, and not from the lack of gravity. This is something else. An all new kind of feeling that she’s experiencing. 

She thinks that she’s meant to be the brave one. That she’s meant to be the one holding him while he falls and tell him it’s okay, but he’s trying to do it for her, even in his more pressing situation. 

She doesn’t know how to respond. 

This wasn’t the flirting or teasing over card games which she had come to find humorous and enjoyable. Only in the last two days had she really started toying with the idea of something more. It was still a foreign feeling to her, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it or whether she should pursue it. 

His words just then. Did that mean he felt something too? Or was it him dying? She was frustrated that she couldn’t develop a confident answer to it, because having the chance for something more ripped from her, or more accurately suffocate in her arms wasn’t a comforting thought. 

Her mind was telling her one thing, her heart was telling her another. 

She just hopes that they can survive this and give them a chance to figure out whatever they are. 

She decides to shift the topic, convincing herself that she is doing it purely because she needs him to stay conscious, “So is this closest you’ve come to dying?”  
“Not even close,” he let out a weak laugh, his exhale covering his entire mask before dissipating, “Had my fair number of close calls over the years.”  
“Tell me about them,” Sara spoke gently, her eyes displaying a sense of curiosity and interest.

“My first was the day I met Mick,” Snart began.  
Sara smirks, “Do you see my surprised face?”

Leonard flicks his eyes up to her, he huffs and then looks back at their interlocked hands, “Not the way you think actually. First day in juvie, I was 14, youngest kid in the block by far. Some of the older kids wanted to make that clear. They jumped me, I was outnumbered, but I still tried to fight back. Was a terrible fighter back then and within a few seconds, they had me held down to the floor and I had to watch as the leader pulled out a shiv and stalked over to me.”

Sara watched his eyes flutter, the crystal blue obscured in the visor. She wasn’t sure if he realised it, but his breathing and voice were weakening and slurring respectively, so she tried to give him some extra oxygen to keep him going. 

“14 is a young age to think that this is where it all ends up for you. Bleeding out, dying of infection from some rusty metal shard on a toothbrush,” he continued, “Just as he’s about to shank me, a lit matchstick flew through the air and hits the guy in the face. I managed to turn my head, and a few feet away, I see him. Mick, eyes glaring at the guy with the shiv and without even opening his mouth, they all start retreating.”  
“He saved you,” Sara smiled.

She hadn’t imagined Mick like that before. Looking out for the newbie. 

“He did more than that,” Snart added, “he looked out for me. And those kids never bothered me again. Mick had my back, and he always has. Every other time I came close to dying, Mick was there to help. He was the best partner I could have asked for,” then Snart’s face turned sombre, “I just wish I could have been a better partner to him.”

He slipped against her, weightless and drifting to the side, only his feet anchoring him in place. Sara tugged on his hand and pulled him back, using her other hand to stabilise them and return his head to its rightful place against hers. 

She won’t deny that a part of her wishes they didn’t have to be in this very serious life-threatening situation. Maybe the cargo bay or the meeting area on some comfortable chairs would be much nicer.

“Well you can be a better partner to him, because you are not going to die on me,” Sara said sternly, squeezing his hand tightly to emphasise her point.  
“He’s dangerous and scary, Sara,” Leonard’s eyes displayed an almost fear-like expression, “I can normally keep him in check, but if I can’t be there for him, will you?”

She didn’t want to imagine this as a bigger than it was. But it was. Because it is a big deal. Snart wanted her, to be there for his lifelong friend if he didn’t make it. She felt honoured and helpless at the same time because she was still trying to control herself. And based on her experience in the League and the people she’s seen, Mick being dangerous and scary was just shy of being an understatement. She wouldn’t know how to be there for him.

“I won’t have to, because you can do it yourself,” she tried to give a playful smile and ease the tension, but Snart’s face remained serious.  
“Just,” Snart trailed, his eyes closing as he began slowing.  
“Leonard?” she spoke, her eyes narrowing at his face. No response, “Leonard?”

She gave him a brief shake, and that seemed enough to open his eyes which fluttered around like mad until settling on hers. 

“Come on, stay with me,” she held his head up to stop it from leaning back. 

She peers at the panel on her arm that was holding his head. The oxygen in the bottle had been depleted, and all that remained in her rebreather was one-percent of oxygen. She curses herself for not remembering that his damaged suit would have run out first. It was barely a whisper, but Snart spoke, reminding her of his own bottle, which although may have leaked most of its contents, was still better than nothing. 

She leant him forward and unfastened the bottle from his rebreather on his back. She then grabbed the tube from her bottle, tugged it off and then attached it to his bottle and placed it between them. As she twisted the bottle to open it up and let the air flow, the panel began processing the data to determine an approximate remainder of oxygen levels. 

They just bought themselves another 14 minutes to share. Sara tapped to the comms before Leonard could get a look, and connected back with the others.

“Kendra?” Sara spoke, allowing Snart to hear, “How’s those bottles coming?”  
She heard some humming coming from the other end, “10 minutes at most. If I don’t connect these cables right now and they accidentally touch, they might fuse together and overload the ship.”

“No pressure then,” Snart grumbled.  
“Hang in there you two. We’ll get you,” Raymond spoke in typical Raymond confidence. 

Three extra minutes, Sara thought. They just needed to get an extra three minutes out of the seven minutes. If she really tried, she could enter a meditative trance and significantly reduce her breathing. But doing so means she won’t be able to keep him awake, and the risk of him passing out on her is too high. 

They were going to have to survive on their own. 

“Do you promise to stay awake for 10 more minutes crook?” Sara grins, hoping that this dare like request would keep him motivated and focused.  
His eyelids opened barely, and he squinted at her, “What if I say no?”  
“You lose,” Sara replies blankly, through a bit of a laugh at the end. 

Leonard groans and shifts against her, “Well, guess I better stay awake huh?”

She gave him a humoured wink as a response before they both fell silent. Talking would only drain their oxygen faster, and although Snart wasn’t sure how long they had left, if Sara was keeping quiet then it meant that cutting it close was likely to be the case. 

Minutes passed in silence. Sara was still managing the oxygen distribution in one hand as she twisted around to more comfortably grab Leonard’s hand with her other. Their heads didn’t move from each other, just gently scraping as one of them moves their head slightly. 

Leonard forces his eyes open and looks at their interlocked hands. 

He tried to be brave for her, he wanted so badly to be the one to hold her as they fall, but now he’s scared. He’s not scared for himself. He’s scared about her. He doesn’t want her to die because of him. 

If she was the one in his position, where she was clinging on with the tiniest of threads, he would gladly hold onto her and promise to fall with her the entire way, but now that he knows that he’s going to be the one to fall first, the last thing he wants is to drag her down with him. 

“Sara,” his voice is barely a husky croak, “Promise me you’ll let go.”

She doesn’t respond, but she shifts her head. 

“Hold me halfway if you have to, but promise me you won’t join me in the end. Save the last bit of air for yourself, please,” Leonard begs, his eyes going blurry as tears fail to escape from his eyes without gravity to free them. 

“We’ll get through this Leonard,” she responds. 

It’s neither a promise a promise or a refusal, but he imagines that her eyes gentle eyes lock with his and she makes that promises. It eases him slightly to imagine so. 

“Guys! Guys! We’re done! I’m on my way!” Kendra’s voice erupted from the comms in Sara’s helmet.  
Sara shakes their interlocked hands, “Hold on Leonard. Please.”

The ship hums with energy, they can feel it coursing through the veins of the ship. The lights get marginally brighter. 

Sara gave him a weak smile as she watched the panel on her arm, still concerned for the man sitting beside her. Just because Kendra was on her way, didn’t immediately stop the problem. There were still six minutes left of oxygen to share between them, and those minutes will be spent waiting for Kendra to run to the medbay, run to them, then replace Snart’s rebreather, which was in worse condition than her own.

By the time all that happens, Snart may be out of time, and Sara dreaded the upcoming feeling. She saw the tears splat against the inside of his helmet. There were tears in hers too. Another few minutes passed by when Kendra’s form rounded the corner. Neither of them noticed, didn’t help that sound wasn’t able to travel in the vacuum and the fact that they were so engrossed in each other. 

Sara was the only one with enough energy to be startled as Kendra grabbed onto them and dropped the new rebreather and oxygen bottle in their laps. Their hands part, and she’d be lying if she claimed she couldn't still imagine feeling his against hers. 

“Save him,” Sara lifts her head to look at their saviour, praying that her presence brings enough time. 

The assassin placed her spare hand on Leonard’s shoulder and gave him a reassuring nod before pushing him into a float, away from the wall. He was weak, exhausted and barely conscious so it was slow, but Kendra and Sara helped him before the former slide around behind him and began the procedure. 

Sara connected her helmet with his again, “Kendra’s going to take out your rebreather and replace it. You might want to hold your breath.”

With the last of the oxygen available between them, Sara gave it all to him before Kendra disconnected the rebreather. While Kendra detached the mechanism and placed it against the wall, Sara began replacing her own oxygen bottle with a new one, all while holding her own breath. 

She loathed the need to turn around and look at her own suit, afraid that somehow Leonard might not be there when she turns back. 

He was feeling dizzy before she even took the device off, and although that last puff of clean oxygen was nice, he was still struggling to keep himself composed as his mind desired to drift off. Holding your breath? That was usually easy for Snart. He wasn’t in great health per se, but he could still accomplish just under three minutes straight. Unfortunately, his current situation was far from ideal, and the exhaustion and nausea meant that his concentration was slipping. 

He tried to keep himself focused, feeling the back of his suit move around as Kendra disconnected the device and began repairing tubes before she could put the new device in. Then he closed his eyes, still trying to hold his breath, but it was getting harder and harder by the second. His lungs burnt, likely from all the stale and unfiltered air circulating in his helmet. He needed to rest, and whether he liked it or not, his body had decided now was the time. 

Sara felt the air rush out as the old tube disconnected before she swiftly replaced it with the new one, already attached to the bottle and feeding her a stream of fresh oxygen.

She took the largest inhale she could since the incident began and as relieving as the fresh of breath air was, her mind was far from settled. 

Her attention focuses back on Snart’s who’s visor is but a blur, the light from her own helmet making it glare brightly and impossible to him inside. 

“How’s it coming?”  
“Going good, I’ll be done in a few seconds,” Kendra replied as she attached the last tube back to the rebreather before pushing it into Snart’s back and letting it clip into place, “All done!” Kendra let out a sigh of relief. 

Sara pressed herself against Leonard’s helmet, trying to peer through the fog, “All done Leonard. Breathe. How are you feeling?”

No response. 

“Snart?” Sara’s voice became more concerned as seconds passed and not even a single flutter of eyes was seen, “Leonard, wake up!” She tried to shake him but still got nothing from the crook.  
“What’s wrong?” Kendra looked at her concerningly.

Sara grabbed Snart’s arm that held the panel, trying to bring up the suit’s internal monitoring system but it was crapping out on her due to the damage. She could barely get it to stay active instead of presenting her with a black feed. 

“He’s not waking up,” Sara finally answered when she realised Kendra was still watching her.  
“Is he ok?” the other woman looked the male between the two of them.  
Sara shook her head and genuine fear and concern covered her face, “He must have fallen unconscious when you were replacing his rebreather.”

Sara tried various other tactics, but every normal method of trying to detect a pulse or sign of life wasn’t working. This wasn’t happening. It just wasn’t allowed to. They didn’t make it through all this just for Leonard to die right at the end as they’re saved. It wasn’t fair!

“He’s not breathing!” Sara called out, “Gideon!”  
“There is a button on the rebreathers to force oxygen circulation through the suit,” Gideon’s voice came over the comms, “I suggest you try to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation.”

Sara grabbed onto Leonard’s body and leant his front against her so Kendra had more room to access the rebreather on his back. It was reassuring to feel the release of oxygen from the bottle through the vibration in the suit as it began forcefully circulating and recycling the airflow, but it wasn’t enough. 

Once the suit began forcing clean oxygen into Snart’s lungs, Sara began performing CPR. Well, as best as you can through a bulky vac suit. It was difficult, but she eventually found a rhythm to the compressions that would have to do in their current conditions. 

Kendra watched in silence, only able to hear the huffing and puffing from Sara’s comms as she slammed her fists on Leonard’s chest. Her relationship with Snart may only be slightly above acquaintances, but seeing him lying there potentially dead, and Sara desperately trying to revive him, it made her feel uneasy. 

Half a minute passed and Sara was relentless as she continued compressions, getting stronger and stronger. After a furious and pissed off slam of her fist on his chest, his body flinched and finally made a response. 

Snart’s eyes shot open, and the pair watched through his now clear visor as he took a large breath in before his body lurched forward, weightless in the zero-gravity, and he roared in agony. Although it was silent to their ears, they could both imagine how loud it would have been. 

His hand grabbed onto his chest and he bent forward, clutching at it in agony. 

Sara released a breath she didn’t realise she was holding and lunged forward and wrapped her arm around Snart, bringing their helmets together.

“What the bloody hell was that for?” he shouted and groaned simultaneously.  
Sara laughed as her eyes connected with his once they settled, “You broke a promise.”

Snart shakily inhaled, trying to hold back revealing just how painful his ribs were feeling. She hit bloody hard!

His eyes eventually focused on hers, and he could see the relief and joy, and the tears that floated between her face and the visor. He realises that those emotions are for him. 

“Sorry,” Snart drawls, tries to at least with a bit more air in his lungs, “Just seemed like a really good time to catch some z’s.” 

He felt Kendra jokingly slap her hand on his back, which meant she could obviously hear him through Sara’s helmet.

The assassin’s reaction mirror the grin of the Hawk’s and the smirk on his face faded into something soft when she pushed him back and watched her laugh at him and raise her middle finger. 

“I think I’ve fallen for you,” his confession goes unheard as Sara leans back and lifts her head to the ceiling. 

Oh, he most certainly had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One day, I might write a fic where I don't put Leonard in some life-threatening situation. Today is not that day. I was quite indecisive as to whether Snart would shed some tears during this, and for a while, I didn't put it in. You simply don't see Leonard shed tears. Then I figured that if he's hypoxic, he's not going to be in total control of himself, and his emotions are going to be a bit more vulnerable and open, so I decided that this would be the one instance where tears do actually escape his eyes. 
> 
> There should just be one more chapter after this, which will finish off the episode and a bit extra. 
> 
> Thank you for reading. Let me know if you enjoyed this so far.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was mistaken, there's another chapter after this, which should be the final chapter. 
> 
> I hope you've been enjoying the story so far. 
> 
> Please enjoy.

When the ship’s internal oxygen and pressure had been returned, Leonard couldn’t be happier. A hiss of air escaped the seals as the helmets were taken off, and he was the first one to throw it over his shoulder and shrug off the rebreather. And he certainly did not care if everyone stared at him while he took an incredibly long breath of air. 

An hour had passed since Leonard had technically died and then been resuscitated by Sara. The remainder of the repairs had been completed to the best extent possible while they were still in space. 

The life support was mostly fixed, namely the critical oxygen functions, but the temperature controls on the ship were still damaged, for the time being, therefore leaving the ship’s ambient temperature hovering between two and three degrees Celsius. For that matter, they elected to remain in the warmth of their suits, but they discarded the helmets and rebreathers as their necessity was no longer. 

Telemetry was back, and Gideon was able to take control over the ship once more, bringing them to a complete stop out of the hurtling trajectory they were previously in. 

As to be expected, Leonard was the most grateful to be finally done with fixing the ship. He was feeling like crap, like waking up from a really bad hangover. His mind was a blurry mess, his chest still ached from the beatdown that Lance laid upon it, and god was he just tired in general. 

Leonard appreciates the comfortable feel of one-Earth-gravity weighing him down as he hops into the medical bed and uses it to rest, relishing in the fact his body is being pressed into the cushions of the bed. 

Raymond is sitting on the other bed, legs dangling off the side while cables run from the wall beside him to the empty A.T.O.M. suit on the floor between himself the resting crook. 

“Sorry we couldn’t be there sooner,” the scientist repeats again for the fourth time in the past half hour.

“Stop talking,” Leonard doesn’t open his eyes, instead just raising a firm hand in Ray’s direction in a gesture of silence, “It’s over. Not your fault.”

Ray thankfully does fall silent and accepts that the guilt isn’t his to bear. 

Just as Leonard is about ready to drift off and finally get some rest, the sound of two bulky rebreathers and oxygen bottles clanging on the ground jolt him back into consciousness. 

He lets out an audible groan in disappointment, peeking his eyelids open and watching and Kendra and Sara walk through the door of the medbay and deposit their gear. Both still have their hair tied up in buns, and he can see the imprint of where the helmet flattened the buns into their head.

“Gideon?” Kendra calls out to the ceiling as she helps Sara store the oxygen bottles, “How’s the ship?”  
“The ship is running at 92 percent operational capacity,” Gideon’s voice sounds pleased and cheery.  
“Sooo,” Kendra strolls over to Leonard’s side, placing her hands on the edge of the bed, “You died.”

Leonard turns his head slightly to look at the Hawk woman, “You thinking of inviting me to your club?”  
“You can be the new recruit,” Sara calls out, grunting as she forces the cupboard door shut to stop the oxygen bottles from falling out.  
“I’ll pass,” Leonard sighs, a small grin forming on his face “I hear the health insurance is pretty underwhelming.”

Kendra chuckles and pats Leonard’s arm as she steps back, “Hey Ray? Would you mind joining me? There’s something I want to check out.”

There’s a vagueness in her tone that Leonard can’t help but notice, and he can imagine the oblivious expression on Raymond’s face, who’s trying to figure out what could possibly need checking up on now that the ship is mostly back together again. 

“Now,” Kendra adds with a bit more firmness, and Ray immediately flings himself off the side of the other bed and strides after Kendra.

“Kendra,” Leonard calls out to the retreating figure, watching her turn to look at him, “Thanks.”

She smiles, then disappears around the corner with Raymond. 

The door to the medbay closes and Leonard can feel the gaze of Sara on him from across the room as he settles back into the bed and begins relaxing.

Leonard tilts his head and looks at the cross-armed blonde leaning against the cabinet nearby, “And thank you too.”  
“I wasn’t going to let go,” Sara’s eyes lock with his from across the room.  
Leonard exhales quietly, “Guess neither of us are good at keeping promises.”

He knows she didn’t promise. She doesn’t correct him either.

Sara pushes herself off the cabinet, but she doesn’t step closer to Leonard, just rocks her feet on the spot, “Did you, uh, mean any of that? While you dying? You know, the hypoxia and stuff?”

It’s an out. 

She’s giving him an out. An opportunity to take back everything he said to her, a chance to blame his actions on his hypoxic-induced state. His implied promise to hold her hand until the end, his plea for her to look after Mick if he doesn’t make it, his final request for her to let him go. 

Blame it all on the hypoxia and they can go back to the way they were at the beginning of the week. Where they were practically strangers to each other. 

That couldn’t be further from what Leonard wants. 

“Yeah,” Leonard responds with a calm tone, “I meant it.”

Sara’s mouth makes an ‘O’ shape as she processes his answer. It’s as if she was trying to prepare herself for the alternative and now finds herself surprised at his response. 

“Do you want me to change my answer?” Leonard grunts as he forces himself to sit up, his chest still aching, and he can feel the bruises forming.  
“No,” Sara replies almost immediately, then goes mute and wide-eyed at her suddenness.

“Look, uh, we probably need to talk or something about where this leaves us,” Leonard says, “But I feel like I’m gonna pass out again, and we still have half a team to save.”

Sara snaps to, “Right. Yes,” she takes a few steps, her hand coming to her forehead as her brain tries to process a million thoughts at once, “I’ll uh, let you rest, and help Ray and Kendra find a way to get the others.”

“Apologies for the interruption,” Gideon’s voice surprises them both as they forgot about the omnipresent AI, “But I just received word from Mr Rory on the Jump Ship.”  
“He escaped?” Sara looks up to the roof, “What about the others?”  
“Unfortunately, it is only Mr Rory, and he took quite a beating during the process. I have control over the Jump Ship and we are on an intercept course to pick him up,” Gideon explains.

“How long?” Leonard asks.  
“Just under the hour,” Gideon replies, “That should be sufficient time for you to rest, Mr Snart.”  
Leonard nods, “Cheers, Gideon.”

Sara steps to the exit of the medbay, the sliding doors opening at her approach. 

She turns her head back to look at him, “I’ll see you in an hour, crook.”  
Leonard huffs and smirks at her, “See you then, assassin.”

The door closes with a thud behind her, and Leonard lies back in the bed. His mind is racing, and had his body not been crying out for a chance to sleep, he’d likely spend the next hour staring at the ceiling and trying to think about what this means for him and Sara, what happens to them now and where things will go. 

But alas, his body is indeed crying for sleep, and minutes later, his eyes closed and he drifts off into a relaxing slumber. 

XXX

“You know what you’re going to say to him?” Lance asks casually.  
Leonard shrugs, “I’ll improvise,” he drawls. 

Sara had gone to wake up Snart now that Mick and the Jump Ship were only five minutes away. They were making their way back to Kendra and Ray who were waiting by the hangar bay corridor for Mick’s arrival. 

“You’re really going in without a plan?” she raises a sceptical eyebrow, questioning the validity of his answer. 

He shrugs again, “You got any suggestions?”

Sara presses her lips together and tries to think of something, but she comes up blank. Mick’s not like any person she’s tried to deal with before, and the relationship between the thieves are something unique that Sara finds herself without any useful suggestions. 

They reach Kendra and Ray, the latter back in his A.T.O.M. suit after the recharge, at the corridor just as the ship rocks with the sound of the docking clamps grabbing onto the Jump Ship, securing it inside the hangar. 

The door mechanism hisses open, and out lumbered Mick in a bulky vac suit, metal boots thumping on the ground with each lumbering step. There were pirate symbols littered all over the chest plate and helmet. Leonard thinks he must have found one during his escape. 

Through the visor of the helmet, Snart noticed the cold and distant look in the pyro’s eyes. He’d never seen Mick so detached before. And if Mick was detached, that meant he was angry. A terrifying thought considering Mick looked so stoic right now. 

“You okay Mick?” Snart spoke down the corridor, preparing to take a step forward. 

Maybe he should go over and help, but something about Mick’s expression locks Leonard in place. Something’s not right. 

Mick’s head slowly turns to the side, as if he doesn’t care about the four teammates standing down the corridor, “Boys! Air is good!”

Before he even finished speaking, pirates began funnelling through the door behind him and surrounded the pyro, forming a defensive barrier with a variety of laser pistols, rifles and snipers, trained at the four members of the Waverider. 

The front row is outfitted in a different kind of vac-suit to Mick’s pirate detailed suit. Their helmets are far less revealing of their face, just red slits of armoured glass covering their eyes. Dark plated armour covers most of the suit, only revealing the meshed under-suit around the joints. Written across the chest plate is the ship ID of the Acheron. 

Leonard remembers Rip mentioning that the Acheron is the flagship of the Time Master Navy, so it is well within reason to expect the Acheron to contain armoured space suit for boarding raids. 

Both sides faced each other off, the pirates vastly outnumbering the Waverider crew at least four to one. Snart’s hand hovered over his cold gun, which had been on charge while he slept. He felt Sara tense beside him, preparing her body to fight. 

Leonard dared a quick glance at Raymond and hoped that the boy scout’s righteous personality hadn’t already prepared to fire and escalate the situation before Snart could at least attempt to defuse it. Thankfully, he hadn’t. Kendra had seemed somewhat shocked but was regaining her senses and staring down the pirates. 

“What are you doing Mick?” Snart drawled, his tone relatively calm for the situation, not letting slip any sign of concern that this is not how he was hoping things would go.  
“Getting us home,” Mick’s dangerous voice emanates from the suit. 

“Savage isn’t dead yet, Mick,” Snart replies sternly, “But send these men back and we’ll talk about getting you home.”

Mick’s eyes narrowed through the visor, but the coldness that Snart detected was finally revealing itself to be the brewing fire in the pyro’s eyes, “No Snart. This time, we do things my way. Ditch those losers.”

Snart stepped forward tentatively, his eyes concentrated on Mick, refusing to let any emotion slip through onto his face. The internal coil of the cold gun charged up as he unholstered it, the barrel pointing at the floor. 

“Time to choose a side then,” he turns back to the other three, reading the mix of expressions on their faces. 

Raymond is focused intently on the pirates, eyes watching the hostiles for any signs of a pre-emptive attack. 

Kendra is prepared to dive out of the way of the dozens of laser shots, rising on her toes for fast acceleration, but her attention starts to focus on Snart, uncertain about his action. 

And Sara, well it hurts his heart to see the look of betrayal on her face. 

“Chosen,” within a second, he presses the trigger and fires a sweeping blast of ice energy down the corridor, crashing the beam into the front row of armoured pirates. 

Raymond’s plasma shot fires off at the other group who are just about to fire on Leonard, causing enough chaos for Leonard to step back and follow Sara around the corner, just in time to escape the trajectory of a laser shot. 

He heard Mick’s voice shouting orders, commanding his men to hunt them down. 

“Get your weapons!” Leonard orders to Sara, swinging his arm around the corner and firing a ray of frost at the floor, slowing the advancing pirates. 

Sara recovers from the momentary shock of learning Leonard’s decision to not side with his former partner, and begins dashing off towards her room, only hindered slightly by the vac-suit. At least she doesn’t have the heavy rebreather on anymore. 

Raymond, able to move more fluidly in his A.T.O.M. suit, was guarding the corner by poking around a few times to fire back at the advancing pirates while gesturing for Snart and Kendra to fall back and expect a flank. 

It was a smart call, because by the time Snart and Kendra caught up with Sara, who had just emerged out of her room wielding her bo staff, a few laser blasts collided against the wall in the corridor. Snart ducked into the closest room to get cover, while Sara pressed herself against the wall at an angle that protected her. Raymond fired a shot at one of the men that Kendra threw towards him, dropping the pirate to the ground quickly. 

Another group of unarmoured pirates were coming from the other direction and were about to fire on Sara, when Snart fired a freezing blast that blanketed their feet in thick ice. Sara took the opportunity to run at them, frustrated that her mobility was compromised in these suits. The assassin swung her bo staff early, tricking one of them to try and duck in their frozen position, which allowed Sara to quickly swing her staff around and uppercut him, followed closely by a twist that had the staff slam into the chest of the next pirate. 

“Gideon!” Sara calls out, ducking into the cover beside Snart to dodge a barrage of laser fire, “Cut the gravity!”

“Gravity fields disengaging now,” Gideon’s cheery tone replies. 

A second later, and the unarmoured pirates all start screaming and flailing their arms around as they start moving off the floor and into the ceiling and sides. 

Behind them, Leonard and Sara can hear the pirates that Kendra and Raymond are dealing with also make the same exclamations of surprise. But like the Waverider crew, the armoured pirates would have engaged the magnetic boots of their armoured suit and wouldn’t be hindered by the lack of gravity. 

Snart steps around the corner, Lance by his side, and fires a blast of ice that collides into the floating pirates. The beam of frost knocks the unarmoured pirates back, their weightless bodies floating into the path of the armoured pirates. Sara uses the makeshift cover to advance, disengaging her magnetic boots and barrels off towards the armoured pirates, slamming a heavy boot into one of their helmets, and crashing her staff down on another’s.

“Apologies for the interruption, but Mr Rory is nearing the Time Drive,” Gideon informs the team. 

Sara swings her weightless body over the final armoured pirate, kicking him in the back. An action which disengages his magnetic boots and sends him in Leonard’s direction, while also boosting her off in the direction of the Time Drive. 

Leonard fires a stream of frost, coating the armoured pirate in a shell of ice by the time the body floats past him. Making sure that the other two armoured pirates are down and won’t be shooting him in the back, he chases after the flying assassin.

But Sara’s nimble and quick at moving through zero-g, even in the suit, and Leonard has no hopes of catching her on foot, especially since he hasn’t fully recovered from almost dying. But he’d be damned to let something happen to her, or Mick for that matter. 

Eventually, he arrives the Time Drive, but by then it was too late. Leonard sees Mick throw Sara’s weightless body across the room, bringing the heat gun up and firing scorching red flames after her. Being thrown and weightless in the air makes it impossible for her to dodge, and the flames collide into her body as she disappears behind the Time Drive. 

Leonard feels his stomach twist and turns inside him, his brain processing that Mick really just shot Sara. 

He watched Mick take two large steps, ready to finish off the assassin, when Leonard aimed his cold gun and charged his partner, “Mick!”

It didn’t hurt any less than the last time. Mick turning around, eyes darting to the cold gun in Leonard’s hand and the flicker of betrayal that turned into anger as Snart squeezed the trigger. The beam of frost collided into Mick, knocking him into the wall and pinning the pyro to the wall under a block of ice. 

It was only after Mick was stuck to the wall that Leonard let go of the trigger, but he didn’t dare to aim away. The pyro’s arms were stuck to his side, the heat gun falling out of his grip and floating adrift in the room, bouncing off the nearby wall and continuing its trajectory. 

“Sara?” the rage in Snart’s voice remains, coating the underlying concern in his tone. 

The assassin in question, floats around the other side of the Time Drive, clutching her side over a dark burn mark on the vac-suit, “Suit took most of the heat. I’ll be fine.”

Leonard’s eyes don’t know what to look at. She said she’ll be fine, but he just can’t ignore that burn mark, and he doesn’t know how to look at his former partner that had caused that damage. 

Mick is struggling against the block of ice holding him to the wall, shouting off curses and slurs towards Snart and Sara, only losing the energy to continue by the time Kendra and Ray arrive to confirm that the last of the pirates have been dealt with. 

Gideon’s voice comes over the speakers, informing them that Hunter was trying to make communications. The pirate problem on the Acheron had also been sorted, and Gideon was setting an intercept course for the two ships. 

Leonard didn’t care about any of that. He just stared at his former partner. 

XXX

In the passing hours it took to intercept with the Acheron, assess any critical damage to either ship, get the pirates locked up on the Flagship, and Mick locked up on theirs, Sara was carefully watching Snart from a distance. 

If anyone asked, which Professor Stein did when he caught her by surprise as she was completely focused on watching Snart clean up the ice he had created in the corridors to slow the pirates, she would say she’s making sure he hasn’t got any lingering effects from the rebreather incident. Martin looked at her curiously, unaware of the detail of the events aboard the Waverider in the past hours, to which Sara says she’ll explain once everything was settled down. 

They stripped out of the vac-suits, embracing the freezing ambient temperature of the Waverider. Other than making sure the burns on her side were alright, Snart hasn’t said a word since Mick had been locked in the brig. There was no coming back from this for Mick, Sara was certain of that, and she’s pretty sure Leonard knows it too. The rage, the betrayal, the ferocity of the pyro yelling at them through the glass barrier in the brig was a clear indication that he was no longer on their team. Mick has the kind of fire that even Ra’s Al Ghul would have taken an interest in, and that alone is an indication of how far gone Mick is. 

Leonard had walked out of the brig silently, and that’s when Sara had started following him. She wanted to tell him that it would be okay, the same way he tried to tell her it was going to be okay when they were running out of oxygen. But it’s not okay, because she heard the way Snart spoke so highly of Mick. It was the voice of someone who truly cared about another, in their ‘I don’t do emotions’ way. That friendship is dead now, more than Leonard was when he finally ran out of air, but there’s no CPR or technique that can resuscitate this.

Sara couldn’t relate to Snart in this instance. Going through her memory, she couldn’t recollect a moment where someone she cared about, as much as Leonard did Mick, had turned against her in such a manner. 

Now, after being so intimately close to him while they were suffocating, to now silently watching him close himself off, tore at her heart. She wants to feel his body pressed against hers, without the helmets, without the suits this time. But she’s afraid that any attempt to do so now before they get a chance to, talk, is just going to make things harder for Leonard. 

Sara simply does not know what to do about the situation. Her mind is racing with millions of thoughts about everything that had transpired over the hours. Everything in the telemetry control room keeps replaying in her head and she wishes that this betrayal by Mick never happened so she and Leonard could talk. 

Physically, he looks okay, but he’s a bit slower than usual at walking around, and his breathing is still heavy. Mentally, well Sara has no clue, and it’s times like this where she would kill for someone with psychic powers on the team. 

The ship surges forwards suddenly, the engines firing up as they begin breaking away from the Acheron. The unexpected action combined with Sara’s lack of focus on anything but Snart means she’s caught off guard, and a hand shoots out to hold onto one of the metal pipes running across the wall. 

The resonating sound catches the crook’s attention, whose body looked more prepared for the ship’s take-off. 

“Everything alright assassin?” Snart’s cold drawl spoke, but he didn’t turn around to confirm it was her, just continuing to mop away the shards of ice into a drain. 

She wonders how long he had known of her presence and just put up with it, or maybe he was able to sense it was her. The last one matters her heart flutter a bit. 

“I feel like I should be asking you that question. You did die a few hours ago,” Sara counters, pushing herself off the wall and finally walking down the corridor to Leonard. 

His head turned slightly, and she could see the edges of a smirk on his face. It was a comforting and reassuring sight to know that he wasn’t completely shut off and immediately trying to push her away. And that only makes her want to run over there and hold him even more now. 

“Other than almost broken ribs,” he drawls, “I think I’m doing well for coming back to life.”

He turns his head back to the melting ice and continues mopping it towards the drain in the floor. 

“You kinda deserved it,” Sara says, taking another step closer to him. 

She’s just a few meters away now. She could close the gap in less than a second if she wants, and it takes everything inside her not to.

“You lied, broke a promise, crook,” she teases, praying that this familiar banter helps in some way.  
Leonard hums, his back still to her, “Lying is on my CV, assassin.”  
“Probably the only truth on it,” she quips. 

Leonard stops and turns slowly to face her, an exaggerated and faux look of offence at her joke on his face. It makes her smile, but when his expression settles back down, she sees right through the mask he tries to put in its place. 

He was hurting, badly, and she couldn’t help but feel that he was just going along with her to try and deceive her, to make her believe that he’s okay. She understands that it’s his nature to do that, she has no power to change that about him, but she hopes that one day he might understand he doesn’t have to do that with her. 

“About our talk,” Leonard’s voice loses the drawl, “Can we wait a bit?”  
Sara nods her head, “Yeah, sure. I get it. Rip will probably want us on the bridge soon anyway. I’ll see you then?”

Leonard gives a weak flash of a smile, a small nod before turning around and continuing his silent work of cleaning up the mess from the pirate raid. 

Sara stands still for a few moments, watching him work, trying to refrain from going up to him. She has to tear herself away, force her feet to move in the opposite direction from him and head towards the bridge. 

Sara trudges up the steps to Rip’s office, where some of the crew were already waiting, and claims a small tool by the desk. She spins idly on it, using her feet against the desk to swing her back and forth, only stopping her spiralling motion when Leonard enters the bridge about 20 minutes later. It takes her a few seconds to stop feeling so dizzy. 

He somehow looks worse than when she last saw him, as if his body is finally going to collapse and pass out. She almost wants to tell him to head back to his room and sleep, but he’s stubborn, and she doubts that he doesn’t want to miss whatever the captain has to say about Mick’s situation. 

Sara watched as Rip began speaking, a tablet on the circular table in front of him, rattling off some of the things that they will need to do with the ship to get it completely repaired. Out of the corner of her eyes, she waits for Snart’s reaction when Rip changes to the subject she’s been anticipating. 

As soon as the pyro’s name escaped the captain’s mouth, she saw the small shift in Leonard’s stance. He looks like he wants to say something. 

“If he wants to return to 2016 so badly, why don’t we just take him back?” Raymond looked around the group.  
“Because now he’s angry,” Snart drawled. 

Sara could tell that the drawl and the tired look on his face was the only thing stopping the others from seeing how badly this situation is affecting him. 

“And?” Raymond presses for an explanation.

“Because my sister lives n 2016,” he replies dryly, shifting his gaze to Stein, Jax and Sara, “And your wife, and your mother, and your sister.”  
Jax looks at the thief with shock, “You really think he’d lash out like that?”  
Snart focuses on the young mechanic, “Mick needs to kill. That’s the only thing he cares about right now, and since he couldn’t kill us, he’ll certainly settle for everyone back home.”

“So we’re just going to leave him in the brig until we defeat Savage?” Kendra raises the question, unsure of how they are meant to handle this situation. 

Rip shakes his head, revealing that it is unsuitable for Mick to try and live in the brig. And as Sara points out that they can’t allow him free reign on the ship, they are out of ideas on how to handle the problem. 

It came as a shock when the words came out of his, even if she had considered the possibility herself, only as a desperate last measure. But the fact that Leonard himself was saying he’d, handle it, was not at all what she expected. 

“I said, I’ll handle it,” Snart snaps back at the Professor after the accusation of being willing to murder Mick. 

Those words kept echoing through her head, but she was denying it every time. Examining his face revealed nothing other than the look of mere annoyance at the situation. Annoyance? Sure, maybe if you were one of those hardcore League of Assassin members who comes across a tricky target, you could be annoyed at having to kill the person. 

But Snart was looking annoyed at having to kill his best friend. The man who a few hours ago, on his metaphorical deathbed, begged for her to look out for him if he didn’t make it. And now that Snart wasn’t dead, he wanted to, handle, his best friend?

She was mesmerised, all of her attention focused on him as he stepped away from the group and began heading towards the exit of the bridge. Rip was saying something, she didn’t really care at this point, and was lost in thought as Snart disappeared from sight as the doors closed behind him. 

Leonard had helped her, become a momentary anchor for her humanity when she had been about to murder Stein. A reassuring voice telling her that she’s not the monster that she thought she was, that she’s not just an instrument of killing. 

That voice was vastly different from the one that just said he’d handle his best friend.

Now, Sara had decided that she was going to be the anchor for him, to stop him from making this grave mistake. 

“Ms Lance!” Rip’s voice shattered her concentration and she almost jolted back in her seat.  
“What?” she snapped back, eyes focusing like daggers on the captain, pissed off that he’d interrupted her from trying to think of something important.  
“Have you been listening to anything I’ve just said?” the captain leant forward across the table, hands firmly square across a stack of papers. 

Sara didn’t respond out of frustration, glaring at the captain before turning her focus away. The captain let out a long and exasperated sigh before muttering that everyone should go get some rest and they’ll resume the conversation tomorrow. Everyone began leaving the office, Hunter requesting Jax to come with him to at least fix the temperature control system so everyone can be comfortable during the night. 

She rose from the stool, exiting the bridge with haste and almost broke into a sprint as she ran to the brig. 

“Leonard! Stop!” she calls out, rounding the corner to see Leonard about to swipe his hand over the outside door for the brig. 

His hand snaps back from the door panel as if there was a field that had burnt him. He looks at her with a surprised expression. 

“Don’t do this,” Sara cuts the run down to a slow walk, continuing to close the gap between herself and Leonard.  
“What are you doing here?” Leonard asks.  
“To help you, like you helped me,” her tone matter-of-factly, “You stopped me from killing Stein, now I’m going to stop you from killing Mick.”

Snart huffs and shakes his head, watching Sara continue to close the gap until she’s within an arm’s reach of him, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”  
“Then enlighten me, Leonard!” Sara snaps, “Why are you doing this?”  
“Mick’s dangerous. He can’t be on this ship and he can’t be in 2016, so I’m sorting this problem out,” Snart replies in a tone that sounds void of emotion.

Leonard’s hand moves to the door panel once again, but Sara’s already acted and steps in front of the door, her hand intercepting his and wrapping her fingers around his. She watches his entire body tense up in front of her, and she tilts her head up to see the frown on Leonard’s face. 

When she said she wanted to be close to Leonard again, to hold him without the suits in their way, she didn’t mean it like this. 

“Lance,” his tone is dark.  
Sara doesn’t let her grip loosen, remaining firmly in front of Leonard, “I just can’t imagine that the man who was seeking forgiveness from his best friend is now going to kill him.

She looks for something on his face, anything to explain his actions, but she just sees the look of someone with a plan. 

Snart shrugs, “Fine, don’t imagine it then. Believe what you want.”

His words suddenly connected in her brain, and her entire perspective on the situation changed. This bastard in front of her was leading them on, letting them all come to their own conclusions, and she was annoyed that she’d fallen for it. 

“Why the word games?” she looked at him curiously.

He sighs, face and body seeming to release some of that tension that had built up when she closed the distance. But he doesn’t respond, just looks down at her and then to his hand covered by hers. 

She lets her grip go, the nerves in her fingers burning as she retreats her hand, “You don’t have to pretend with us Leonard. We’re a team. It’s not just you against the world anymore.”

He gets the implied indication that she's refering to just the two of them. 

“You’re a good person at heart Leonard, so why would you try to convince everyone that you’re a cold-blooded killer?” Sara leans back against the cold metal of the door. 

He doesn’t respond, just looks at her with a gentle expression. 

Sara sighs, “At least tell me what you’re going to do with him.”  
“Take him somewhere isolated, where he can’t hurt anybody,” Leonard answers, “Maybe give him a book to cool down.”

Sara rubs a hand over her face. She’s emotionally exhausted, her mind recovering from trying to come to terms with the possibility that she was falling for someone who was just about to kill his best friend. It comes as an extraordinary relief that he’s not, because it saves her heart the emotional turmoil should he have followed through with what everyone was convinced of. 

Sara pushes off the door, her body mere inches from Leonard, head looking up to him with a glare that’s something of a mix of annoyance and relief at his word games. 

She swipes her hand over the door panel, the hiss of the brig's door opening up behind her. 

Leonard places a hand on the side of her arm, “Do you still want to talk?”

Sara nods.

“I should be gone an hour,” Leonard guesses, “Dinner?”

She nods again. 

Leonard smiles and steps past her into the brig. 

“You’re a real piece of work, Snart,” she says when the doors close behind him. 

And yet, she can’t help but accept that she’s certainly fallen for him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the final chapter of this little story. 
> 
> Short and sweet I hope. Any errors or spelling or grammar are entirely my fault, but I do attempt to reread a few days later and edit out the mistakes. 
> 
> Please enjoy.

A quiet Scandinavian forest is the location that Leonard has picked to deposit Mick. Whilst the Acheron may have been stranded in deep space, they were technically in the year 1822. 

Leonard had taken the Jump Ship and flown back to Earth with an unconscious Mick strapped in one of the chairs. It’s not going to be long. Snart’s planning to leave Mick here for 12 hours, give or take, and he’s already got Gideon tracking the GPS coordinates and time for where he drops Mick off. Once they defeat Savage, he’ll have Gideon bring him back to this location about 12 hours later and then he can sort things out with Mick. 

Leonard doesn’t know what happened to Mick on the Acheron. Something must have occurred that finally flipped the pyro to turn against them. He makes a mental note to talk to Rip about it when he gets back, but for now, he needs to tend to Mick. 

Thankfully, the Jump Ship is a speedy little vessel and the couple million miles that the Waverider was from Earth are covered in just under 20 minutes. Leonard doesn’t even try to begin the calculations in his head, partly because he’s so distracted with other things. 

Namely his unconscious passenger, and the assassin back on the Waverider. 

This uncertain suspense between him and Sara is racking at his brain. Except for Leonard when it was impossible for anyone else to hear, neither of them had explicitly confessed feelings for one another. It was just sort of implied by everything that happened, but that implication is ultimately an uncertainty for them both as to what things mean for them from this incident onwards. 

He’ll admit it. He’s stressed out, and rightfully so. Suffocating to death, having these feelings develop for Sara, the betrayal by Mick. Combine that with the frustration and the difficulty of dealing with Savage in general, and yeah, he’s got a lot to be stressed out about right now. 

He’s not thinking clearly right now, running almost entirely on instincts and his nature. Instincts and natural responses that have for years, served the purpose of trying to keep him mentally intact. This entire situation with Mick is brutal on his mind, and he’s so against the idea of people feeling sympathetic towards him about it, that he’d rather them all believe he’s a cold-blooded killer. Because that way, he can prove to himself that he still has a bit of control over the situation. 

But he realises, sitting here ironically calm as the Earth’s atmosphere burns and roars around the hull of the Jump Ship and blinds him so much that he needs to close his eyes, that he doesn’t need to do that anymore. Sara was right. As much as Leonard is used to the feeling, he doesn’t need to face every problem alone. Maybe letting someone in, letting Sara in, isn’t so bad after all. 

The ship touches down a couple of minutes later in a small clearing in the woods, a river about a hundred meters away. The door slides open, and Leonard unfastened Mick from the seat and hoists the burly man around his shoulders. 

There was a tree about 50 meters from the ship, and just the sight of it made Leonard feel exhausted. Leonard tried to carry Mick for most of it, but he was out of strength, and his chest ached, so he dragged Mick along the muddy ground the rest of the way. He knew that Mick was going to be annoyed at the dirt and grass burns, but that was nothing compared to the bigger problem. 

Leonard sits Mick up against the trunk of the large tree, nudging the pyro’s foot and gritting his name through his teeth until Mick stirred awake. 

Leonard took a few steps back as Mick leant his head against the trunk, a hand rubbing over his face. 

There was a grunt, and then Mick’s eyes finally opened, and he took in his surroundings, “What the hell?”  
Leonard stared down as his seated, former partner, “I don’t know Mick, you tell me.”  
Mick pressed himself against the tree for support as he tried to rise to his feet, “Quiet forest, middle of the night. This the plan Snart? To kill me?” Mick stares him dead on, “Like you did, red?”

Leonard’s eyes flare, and his expression turns dark at Mick’s last comment, “I’m not going to kill you, Mick.”  
“Bet you said that to red too, before you put her in the ground,” Mick growls.

Leonard almost lashes out at the statement, but he understands his partner is hurting just as badly as he is right now. Leonard expects Mick to try and use every trick the pyro can think of to make Leonard feel terrible about this situation. 

“I just need to keep you away from the team, Mick,” Leonard tries to explain.  
“The team? We are the team!” Mick roars, taking a large and powerful step towards Snart, whose hand falls to his gun, “It used to just be you and me! What happened?”

Leonard looks to his hand, the metal band on his pinkie reflecting in the moonlight, “People change.”  
“They turned you soft!” Mick snaps, “Hunter and Lance. You think you can be some kind of hero with them, but you can’t. You never will be!”

Snart once again ignores the statement, partly because he doesn’t want to believe this one is true, “What happened Mick? What happened to you on the Acheron? What was it that made you snap?”

Mick lets out a deep and throaty laugh, and had Snart been anyone else, they would have been scared by that sound, “British didn’t tell you,” Leonard’s head tilts in a gesture of a silent question, “Hunter told the truth. I was never meant to be on the team. He just wanted you, Snart. Just you and your brains. I was just part of the package deal.”

Leonard almost recoils back at Mick’s revelation, and suddenly the pyro’s anger finally makes sense. Whilst he still considers the betrayal a step too far, he now understands what had motivated it. That mental note Leonard made about talking to the captain, had a new purpose. 

Leonard stuffs his hand into the inside of his parka and pulls out a book, underarm throwing it to Mick who catches it and looks at it curiously. Leonard then throws a pocket-torch after it. 

“You need to cool off,” Leonard says, pushing the anger to the back of his mind, “I’ll return once we kill Savage.”  
Mick holds the items in clenched fists, “We could have had it all in 2046, Snart! I hope you remember that when Savage slaughters you all.”

Snart frowns, ducking his head to look towards the river in the distance, “Freshwater is over there if you get thirsty. I’m going back to the team.”

“Do you really think you and blondie will work out?” Mick calls out to Snart’s back, making the cold thief stop in his tracks, “I saw how you looked at her, heard your conversation outside the brig.”

Leonard turns back to Mick with a glare. 

Mick has a knowing look on face, “You like her Snart. But you also liked red, and we both know how that turned out. How long before the same thing happens with blondie?”

Leonard wills himself to remain nonchalant at the comment, if not to give Mick the satisfaction of striking a highly sensitive nerve, then at least to prove what Leonard wants to believe.

“Like I said,” Leonard turns around and starts towards the ship, “People change.”

XXX

The doors to Sara’s quarters open with a hiss, the occupant standing on the other side. Her hair is undone, trailing down the side of her head and behind one shoulder, and part of him begins to miss the free-floaty-ness of how it looked in zero-gravity. 

The temperature controls for the Waverider had been fixed, but after spending so long in the cold, Sara needed to feel the warmth again, which is why she is dressed in a grey sweater and long pyjama pants. 

“Where’d you find the bottle?” Sara looks at the bottle of whiskey sitting on the tray beside the plates of food.  
Leonard shrugs with a devious grin, “Always a bottle to be found somewhere on this ship.”

Sara rolls her eyes and steps back, allowing Snart into her room. He walks over to the small bench on the wall beside the alcove of her bed and places down the tray. 

“Is that blood?” Sara sees the stains of red across his knuckles and the back of his hand.  
Leonard looks down at his hands and hums in amusement, “Only the captain’s.”

Sara swipes her hand over the door panel and has her arms crossed over her chest before the door slides shut, “Why, have you got the captain’s blood on your hand?”

Leonard smirks silently as he walks over to the sink on the other side of her room, activating the stream of water and begins scrubbing away the blood. In the glint of the overhead light, Sara’s eyes catch the small metal band around the pinkie of his right hand. She doesn’t remember seeing it earlier today, but she was distracted with a lot more pressing matters than to take note of his jewellery. 

“Our captain was out of line,” Leonard speaks after cutting off the water, “I can’t say it was entirely his fault that Mick turned on us, but what he said was wrong.” 

Sara nods, uncrossing her arms and finds herself unsure of what exactly to do right now. She doesn’t ask for what Rip said to Mick, just allows herself to be content with the belief that Leonard’s form of justice was fitting for the crime. Besides, she and Kendra have already socked Rip’s jaw, so it’s only appropriate that Leonard finally gets his hits in too. 

Leonard’s longer strides mean that he catches up to Sara by the time she reaches the bench. They stop with a small gap between. 

“Are you sure you’re okay? After everything?” Sara looks up to the looming figure of Leonard.  
Leonard smirks with a huff, “I think you caused the most damage,” placing a hand over his tender ribs.

“If you think I’m going to apologise for that, you are mistaken,” Sara emphasises her statement with a pointed finger at him.  
“Already got an apology from the captain anyway,” Leonard drops into the stool opposite Sara, picking up the bottle of whiskey and unscrewing the cap. 

Sara smiles when she realises that he’d liberated it from the captain’s supply on the bridge, likely after whatever clash between the crook and captain occurred. 

Leonard sets about pouring each of them a drink while Sara divides the food on the tray between them. Gideon played a part in selecting the food for tonight’s dinner, insisting that Leonard eat something with a balanced sugar level to help his brain recover from the hangover feeling he’s been trying to ignore since coming back to life. The omnipresent AI is not mad about the beating Leonard gave her captain, having overheard the confession Rip made while he was sprawled along the floor. 

There’s a slight hesitancy as they hold their drinks in their hand. They can see on each other’s face the silent prayer that they not suddenly be under attack by Chronos or some more time pirates. Realising that waiting would only be wasting potentially limited time, they make a small toast to a mostly successful mission and consume their drinks. 

They are quiet for the most part as they eat, sitting on opposite ends of the small bench. Sara faces parallel to the wall in the direction of Leonard who is sitting perpendicular, legs outstretched into the open space of her room, crossed at the ankles. 

This whole setting gnaws at Sara. She craves the physical touch now more than ever, and this bloody bench that protrudes from the wall gets in the way of that. She wants to feel the same comfort in the telemetry room. She wants to feel the weight of his shoulder pressed against hers, the way his head leant harder into hers due to his exhaustion. She wants him to hold her hand. And she never wants to let go.

One brief experience that lasted no more than half an hour, and she’s become addicted to it. Maybe she’s still running on the emotional high that this entire day has given her. Maybe it’s just the subconscious desire for intimate human contact that she realises has been absent from her life since her resurrection. 

She’d probably blame these feelings and craving on those cases if she didn’t want them to be real. But she does want them to be real, which is why she knows that they are more than just a spur of emotions sparked from a close shave with death, or from a body seeking the sense of physical pleasure all but forgotten to her. 

They are real. Because she realises that the one thing all her feelings and cravings have in common, is Leonard Snart. Not Kendra, not Raymond. Leonard Snart. The one who captured her heart from the moment his gloved hand wrapped around hers when she was afraid of feeling the same loneliness of dying again. 

She’s been staring at his profile form for minutes now, the food on her plate almost entirely forgotten at this point. She doesn’t know what to say. What is she meant to say? Maybe start off with something simple. Yeah. That she can do.

“Thank you.”

Leonard’s head turns slightly, and she gets a more frontal view of his face. For a moment, he looks uncertain about what she’s referring to, eyes darting to the food and drinks and thinking she means that, but when looks back up at her and meets with her blue eyes, it clicks in his head. 

He doesn’t respond verbally, allowing an understanding expression to convey his message. What words would he use to explain that he couldn’t bear the thought of her having to go through another lonely death? Leonard always had Mick around whenever he was in those situations where he might not make it through to the next day, and until today, he had never imagined a time where Leonard might die without Mick. 

But that doesn’t mean he chose to comfort, or simultaneously find comfort in Sara because he needed a replacement for Mick in potentially his final moments. No. He did it purely because it was Sara Lance. Because it felt right with her. 

Leonard doesn’t know why it feels right with her. He supposes he’ll never truly grasp the millions of variables that the heart considers when determining who and what feels right, but he is content with knowing that being with Sara felt right. It still does. 

There has only been one other person Leonard has felt right with before Sara, and Mick’s words continue to resonate in his head. How long before history repeats himself and he has to have his heart broken all over again? Doubt pools around in the back of his mind, holding back every thought of an advancement with the blonde sitting across the bench from him. He wants things to be different, but everything that he’s made himself believe in the past 20 years is putting up a good fight. 

Neither of them had spoken in minutes, and now that neither of them was eating or drinking, there was the notable awkwardness that they had successfully managed to avoid all week. Feelings had become involved, and they changed the game. 

“I’m no good at feelings,” Leonard says quietly, his eyes falling to the metal band on his pinkie, “Even worse at relationships.”

It comes as no surprise that he mentions the idea of relationships. Even if this conversation doesn’t lead to the beginning of one, there is an understanding that their relationship as companions, as crewmates, has changed because of the events of today. 

“None of us seem to be very good at stopping Savage,” Sara quietly adds, trying to keep her hands from fidgeting, “Yet we’re still going.”  
The corner of Leonard’s mouth curls up into a smirk, “That we are.”

“Maybe we can be bad at feelings together?”

Sara winces immediately as the words escape her mouth. It sounded so much better in her head than the way it came out. She dares a peek at Leonard, almost expecting a look on his face that tells her she’s gone and messed things up before they could begin. 

But his face doesn’t tell her that. He looks quite humoured by her very simple and yet game-changing suggestion. 

“Maybe,” Leonard drawls, then his brows furrow and he stares off into the openness of her room, “I promised myself I would never have another relationship again. That I wouldn’t do those kinds of feelings again.”

Sara’s heart sinks, and she begins thinking that maybe it was over before it began. That whatever past experience Leonard had was this roadblock that was preventing any further development and advancements between them. 

“But if this mission has taught me anything so far, other than the fact we’re terrible at successfully completing a mission,” Leonard drawls, turning his head back to look at the assassin, “it’s that people change.”

Leonard’s arm stretches out across the bench, his hand past the edge on her side. Sara looks at it for a second, taken back by its sudden presence, then allows her hand to slide into his open palm. 

The touch burns her, or maybe it’s just her imagination. But after feeling it through gloves for so long and then the brief moment outside the brig, this instance sends the nerves in her fingers on overdrive, feeling every intricate detail of his flesh against hers. 

And her hand feels alight when his fingers finally interlock with hers and she can feel the soft pressure of his squeeze. A touch that sends a wave of heat along her arm and right into her heart. 

“I’m willing to change,” Leonard looks at her with a confident certainty, “I’m willing to be bad at feelings with you.”

Leonard’s rising from his seat around the bench surprises her, and by the time she brings herself to her feet, Leonard is standing just in front of her. Their hands are interlocked down by their sides, bodies separated by mere inches from each other. 

Sara stares up into his eyes, reading the warmth behind the light crystal colour that looks back down at her. A noticeable smell of whiskey permeates in the air between them, but they both know that the only intoxication of their minds is the presence of each other, as all other senses of the environment around them fade. 

“What happens to us now?” Sara’s voice is so soft, that had Leonard not been as close as he was, he would not have heard it. 

Sara’s heart begins fluttering inside her as his other hand snakes around her back, finding a place in the cradle of her spine that allows him to slowly start bringing them closer. Her chest begins pressing up against his, and her leg slides into the space between his, resulting in a mirrored action on his behalf. 

“Maybe Savage kills us tomorrow, or we do save Rip’s family,” Leonard drawls, a smirk forming on his lips, “Either way, I want to give us a chance.”

Sara’s left hand, the one not already sending waves of ecstasy through her, cups the crook’s cheek. They meet in the middle, his head leaning down, her feet lifting up on her toes. The kiss is mind-meltingly soft and intimate at first, the taste of whiskey on their lips adding another intoxicating sense to their actions. Lips part open for each other, movements fluid and graceful like a pair of dancers in a duet. 

Somehow, the space between them continues to shrink as they press their bodies closer together, her chest flattening against his. Their interlocked hands break apart, and Sara would almost whine at the loss of contact had Leonard not placed that hand immediately on the back of her exposed neck, his thumb sitting just under the base of her skull along her spine. The way his long fingers mould into the shape of the back of her neck, layered by the locks of her blonde hair, send shivers down her entire body, igniting every nerve along the sensation’s path. 

Her empty hand wraps around his body, and the hand cupping his cheek slides across to the back of his head, the bristles of his buzzcut hair tingle the palm of her hand. The effects of the whiskey palling in comparison to how drunk she feels on Leonard. His touch sends waves of ecstasy through her body, the smell of his musk has her head spinning in whatever reality it thinks itself to be in, and the kiss only continues to deepen as their tongues dance around each other. 

She doesn’t want to be in Leonard’s arms any other way. No suits. No helmet. Right now, she is just allowing herself to melt into his touch, in exactly the way she wants him to hold her. 

Leonard has never felt more right in his life. All lingering doubt is squandered the moment their lips connect. The anger and resentment that comes from the thoughts of the red-head fade away into the back of his mind as he relishes in the pleasure of the blonde. 

He’s holding her tightly in his arms, and maybe he’ll later think that it was a bit too tight, but he doesn’t want to let go. 

Maybe Savage does kill them tomorrow at whatever new time period the Acheron’s data core takes them to. Maybe Savage kills them a month from now. Or maybe, they do in fact defeat the immortal warlord and the mission can be over. Whatever the outcome, the implied promise that they’ll get through it together has been made tonight. 

And maybe tonight would have advanced into something more intimate, something with fewer clothes, had Leonard’s body not been screaming for rest. His lips breakaway from hers as he feels his lungs gasping for air, and he rests his head against the side of hers, unaware of how the puffs of air from his nose on her neck send waves of heat travelling down through her core. 

Sara feels small as the weight of Leonard’s tired form presses against her, making her almost fall back under his entire weight. But she doesn’t care, because as fun as zero-gravity is, this moment wouldn’t be possible without the gravity holding them to the floor. 

They make it to the bed, and Sara helps him up the now tauntingly high gap from the floor to the base of the alcove. He lies supine on the bed, his chest rising and falling with each heavy breath. Sara clambers up and makes room on the other side of him, closer to the back of the alcove. She lies prone, half beside him, and half on top of him. 

His tired eyes are barely open enough for her to see the crystal iris, obscured by the shadows of his eyelids, but they’re open enough to know that he’s looking at her. 

Her hair hangs down over her face, and Leonard raises a slow hand and pushes back the hair from her face. She leans over him, bringing her lips to his once more, smiling into the brief kiss. She parts from him and nestles her head under his chin, the side of her head against the fabric of his shirt. 

Only earlier this day had Leonard Snart suffocated to death in her arms, and now she couldn’t be happier to feel his chest rising and falling underneath her cheek and the exhales of air that brush against the top of her hair. The faint sound of his heartbeat through his shirt, slowing in pace as Leonard’s body begins relaxing, is the most comforting of all sensations. 

A small hand searches for his, her fingers crawling along his open palm before fitting into the spaces between his fingers and squeezing. 

Just before Leonard falls asleep, Sara feels his fingers close around hers, and she allows herself to fall asleep too. 

The End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter took longer to upload than the others. I had textbooks to read, a presentation to draft up, and I rewrote this chapter about four times because I couldn't figure out how I wanted to end it, and for the simple fact that I just suck at trying to write feelings. This work was part of a really long series that includes an entire backstory for Leonard and Alexa's relationship, both tragic and romantic, and you probably noticed the small mention I make of it at the start of this chapter. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed this rewrite of episode 7. I always wanted to create a more sci-fi version of this scene, and I have to thank The Expanse for providing me with the inspiration and basis for accomplishing this. I also hope that I did CaptainCanary justice in the way I wrote this and that you readers enjoyed an altered take on the progression of their relationship. 
> 
> Thank you.


End file.
